On Saturday evening, as anticipated for almost three years, the Battle at Bristol between No. 9 Tennessee and Virginia Tech officially reigned in the highest attendance for an American football game in history: a record 156,990 fans were on hand to watch the game.
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In the second half, a lack of ball security prevented Virginia Tech from chipping away at the Tennessee lead.
That was the schematic edge that Virginia Tech’s offense seemingly had going into Saturday night’s 45-24 loss to No. 17 Tennessee in the Battle at Bristol.
The Bristol Motor Speedway crowd of 156,990 turned out to be the largest in college football history. All Arkansas kicker Cole Hedlund needed to do was make a 22-yard field goal.
Not even two weeks into September, at a NASCAR race track in remote East Tennessee, they shot off confetti cannons for the victor of a college football game.
Dobbs, Barnett, and Vickers shared their thoughts on the Vols’ upcoming game and looked back on the lessons learned from a historic night at Bristol Motor Speedway in Week Two.
Last week in the Hokies’ 36-13 win over Liberty, quarterback Jerod Evans passed for 221 yards and four touchdowns while also leading the team in rushing with 46 yards on five carries. At that point, the Hokies was outgaining the Volunteers 193-6.
“Just an unbelievable spectacle”, Tennessee coach Butch Jones said.
We came here to learn about an (at times) bumblin’, fumblin’, underachieving Tennessee.
The Hokies dominated the first quarter, edging the Vols in yards (204 to 28), first downs gained (nine to one) and points (14-0). Junior receiver Josh Malone helped break the game open with a 38-yard touchdown catch to tie the game at 14-14 in the second quarter. No first downs, plenty of whiffs up front. We knew that we were going to have to score more than 14 points in order to win this ballgame. Vickers was responsible for forcing one of those as he chased down Cam Phillips and knocked the ball out, allowing Abernathy to scoop up one of his school record three fumble recoveries. Virginia Tech ended up losing five fumbles, and three of those turnovers resulted in Tennessee touchdowns.
Tennessee closed the game out on a 45-10 run.
“We woke up a little bit and we played Tennessee-style football”, Jones noted.
Both players left in the second half of last Saturday’s “Battle at Bristol” game against Virginia Tech with ankle injuries.
The Vols scored on the first play after the fumble – a Josh Dobbs pass to Jauan Jennings, who outjumped the defensive coverage in the right corner of the end zone. Best of luck to all Virginia Tech Hokies fans, especially to those saints. Virginia Tech’s dominant first-quarter performance showed the Hokies’ potential, but they can’t keep hurting themselves with turnovers and ill-timed penalties. Every time the line would move I had to pick him up to move him a few feet and lay him back down.
“We’ll have some individuals gain some valuable repetitions and then whoever has the best week of practice will play that spot”, Jones said. “I put this all on me”. Florida’s Luke Del Rio threw it 44 times against UMass for 5.8 yards per attempt. The Vols still must improve their passing attack.
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One of the highest, yet unofficial, records for attendance at a college football game was all the way back in 1927, when 120,000 people gathered at Soldier Field to watch Notre Dame-USC.
