“Appalachian State was an 11-2 team past year, and we really need to focus on them”. Our program is all about effort and pride and fighting hard all the way to the end.
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“I’ve been that guy in the locker room saying, ‘these guys didn’t recruit you, let’s go get them!’ ” he said. Appalachian State is a good team that outscored its opponents by almost 18 points per game last season, and it’s well positioned to compete in the Sun Belt this year, but going from controlling the game against an SEC contender to losing on a lucky fumble play has to hurt regardless. “We didn’t have expectations to score a lot of points or anything”. Appalachian State refused to get pushed around and kept Tennessee’s offense out of the end zone for the first 49 1/2 minutes. Tennessee trailed 24-3 in the second quarter and trimmed the deficit to 24-17 by halftime after two late touchdowns.
Lamb was 15-of-23 passing for 108 yards, one touchdown and one interception for the Mountaineers.
Running back Marcus Cox led the ground game (24-115) for the Mountaineers as he made what was supposed to be a strong Vols’ defensive unit looked lost at times. This was a loss, a crushing disappointment considering how close they came to matching, if not exceeding what that other Mountaineers team did at MI in 2007.
Medley moved the Vols closer with his 39-yard kick in the third stanza and Dobbs had one of his few moments of brilliance at the 10:30 mark of the fourth quarter when he delivered a strike to receiver Josh Malone (two receptions for 81 yards) for 67 yards and the tying score. This time, it was the Mountaineers who had the special teams gaffes with a missed field-goal attempt and extra point.
Tennessee then won in overtime by fumbling into its own end zone.
While the Mountaineers were athletically outmatched, their ability to execute the option with precision on offense and pursue ball carriers at precise angles on the defensive side of the ball allowed the Mountaineers to match the Volunteers’ superior speed and strength. However, no play was bigger for his team tonight than his fumble recovery, keeping the Vols alive in the Top 25 for at least another week. They never got out of September with a winning record.
At the same time, while they’re 1-0, there is something else that they’re certainly not: As good as we thought they were.
One thing is for certain: The Mountaineers competed all four quarters and overtime with a top ten team in the country and should not be overlooked. Georgia beat the Mountaineers 45-6 in 2013, MI avenged its 2007 upset with a 52-14 rout and Clemson rolled 41-10 last season en route to the national championship game.
Admittedly, Thursday night’s overtime win against Appalachian State is concerning, if for no other reason than this: Tennessee needed overtime to sneak past Appalachian State.
No one, from Satterfield to Lamb to linebacker Eric Boggs, wanted to hear about moral victories. Tennessee took a 59-30 win over Bowling Green on September 5th, 2015, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. To be fair, we’ll better be able to answer that a month from now. App State had a chance for a game-winning field goal but tossed it away by refusing to call its final timeout facing third and 5. We will learn from this loss.
“You have to control what we can control and that’s taking care of the football”, Jones said after the game.
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The App State rushing attack was as good as advertised all preseason.
