In receiving, Shaedon Meadors and Jaquil Capel will have to play harder and efficient to help the team in pulling an upset against Tennessee.
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Saturday’s marquee games – including No. 1 Alabama against No. 20 USC and No. 4 Florida State against No. 11 MS – could have an immediate impact on the race for the January playoff. The bad news? You just survived a sloppy, scary, ugly game against Appalachian State.
“You can point out opportunities where we should have won the football game”, Lamb said. Running back Jalen Hurd coughed up the ball in Vols territory after that missed field goal, but Tennessee recovered. It remains to be seen whether the close escape will hinder the Volunteers’ playoff prospects. With 21 seconds left, App State tried a swing pass that got snuffed out immediately, losing four yards and putting them at the Vols’ 37. “I feel like we put ourselves in position to win, and we just didn’t capitalize when we should have”. Williams also recognized a mismatch on a 2-yard touchdown pass to Tim Patrick, who used his 6-foot-5 frame to box out 6-0 cornerback Jarmaine Doubs to take a 17-0 lead just before halftime.
Trailing 13-6 in the fourth quarter, Tennessee tied the game when Dobbs threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Josh Malone with productive true freshman Clifton Duck defending in single coverage and 10:30 remaining in the game. “We had a lot of respect for this opponent”.
But one game into the 2016 season, what we do know about the Vols is that they’re good at recovering their own fumbles.
The Mountaineers stood toe-to-toe with Tennessee and controlled the line of scrimmage for much of the first half especially.
S. Carolina tops Vandy • Elliott Fry kicked a career-long 55-yard field goal with 35 seconds left, and the South Carolina Gamecocks rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to beat host Vanderbilt 13-10 in Will Muschamp’s debut as head coach. We’ll know by October 15, and maybe sooner.
Tennessee answered with Aaron Medley’s 23-yard field goal, but couldn’t score again in the first half.
Tennessee pitched a second-half defensive shutout and won the game with a fourth-down stop.
Appalachian State: RB Marcus Cox rushed for 1,423 yards last season, including a 103-yard performance against Clemson. Dobbs, who ran for a combined 1,140 yards in 2014-15, had minus-4 yards on nine carries.
Either way, Tennessee got an opening night test and it passed.
Missouri State wins • Nick Masoner ran for 132 yards and Jason Randall had two rushing touchdowns as host Missouri State trounced NAIA member Southwestern College 57-0.
“I saw Jalen down with the ball”, Dobbs said.
Luck just wasn’t on Appalachian State’s side on Thursday night. Although the Volunteer defense did give up some yardage on the final drive, it came up with crucial plays when it needed to, including a tackle in the backfield on second-and-one in the closing seconds that took Appalachian State out of field goal range. “We never really were not in control of the game, but we never really had complete control of the game”.
The Thursday night game gives the Vols a few extra days to prepare for the Battle at Bristol next Saturday against Virginia Tech. “We’re still developing our identity for this football team, but we found a way to win, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about, but we have to get a lot better”.
Tennessee almost tied the score on the next possession but a throw to the back of the end zone from Dobbs to sophomore receiver Preston Williams was ruled to be a drop and not a touchdown.
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Cameron Sutton’s fumble on a muffed punt early in the first quarter set the tone for a sloppy game for the Vols.
