The No. 14 (No. 17 Associated Press) Vols drubbed Virginia Tech 45-24 before a college football record crowd of 156,990 in a venue that names its grandstands after heroes like Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Tennessee responded by scoring 31 straight points, including 24 in the second period.
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Dobbs was almost infallible in front of the enormous crowd, heaving a 38-yard touchdown pass to Josh Malone and a 23-yard touchdown pass to Alvin Kamara before adding a 27-yard touchdown run with less than seven minutes remaining. Dobbs threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more scores.
Tech found the end zone on back-to-back drives in the first quarter to give it a 14-0 edge before Tennessee stiffened on defense.
Dropped in the weekly AP and Coaches polls even though they beat a good Appalachian State team in week one, the Vols came in to the Tri-Cities with a chip on their shoulder pads.
The ramifications of that decision immediately came into effect as Arkansas glided 58 yards in four snaps to pull within 28-26, and a reverse pass from Keon Hatcher to Allen tied the game at 28-28 with 1:03 remaining. His 100-yard performance marked the fourth of his career.
Shoop’s crew couldn’t immediately get off the field on Tech’s next possession, but did get a stop and force a punt.
Junior running back Jalen Hurd has now rushed past the century mark in each of his last four games after posting 110 rushing yards against Appalachian State last week.
Travon McMillian – Despite the loss, McMillian looked really good in the Hokie backfield, rushing for 119 yards on 13 carries, including a 69-yard touchdown in the first quarter.
Tennessee recovered at the Tech 5 and scored on the next play.
Tech would kick a field goal to cut the lead to 31-17, but couldn’t get out of their own way.
Right after Abernathy’s fumble recovery, quarterback Joshua Dobbs hit wide receiver Jauan Jennings on a 5-yard touchdown pass with 14:43 left in the second quarter to cut Tech’s lead to 14-7. Tech also committed a block in the back after the interception, costing Virginia Tech 30 yards of field position.
The Hogs took the ball at the top of the first overtime, and Austin Allen cashed in with a third down touchdown pass to tight end Jeremy Sprinkle.
“As a leader, I will do a better job of making sure my guys are in tune”, Virginia Tech quarterback Jerod Evans said.
Momentum kept swinging the Vols’ way when Josh Dobbs took off for a 40-yard run early in the second quarter. In 2013, when planning for the football game began, the speedway expected to have to remove that video screen to make room for a field.
“Compared to what I saw last year Tennessee was very vanilla, and we’re expecting to see a little bit more what they did last year in this ballgame”, Foster said.
According to oddsmakers from online sports book Bovada.lv, the Volunteers are 11-point favorites versus the Hokies while the over/under now sits at 52 points.
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“We watched on film (FIU cornerbacks) were going to play soft often so that was something we were going to attack”, Moore said.
