With most of the fans also farther away from the field than they normally would be Kirkland wonders if that could lead to less crowd noise than usual.
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That wouldn’t have happened a year ago when Tennessee ran out of gas in the homestretch three times, blowing double-digit second half leads in frustrating and season-shaping defeats. In the end, UT looked like it could finish somewhere in the neighborhood of its preseason top-10 billing, with an important tune-up game against OH next – before the Quartet of Death (Florida, at Georgia, at Texas A&M, Alabama) that starts September 24 against the Gators.
Navy had already blown a 21-point lead, and now the Midshipmen were in desperate need of a late stop to stave off another CT comeback. A lasting adage of college football is that a team’s greatest amount of improvement will most likely come between week one and week two. That said, one of these teams is going to have to pass to win. However, I think that Tennessee might have the leg up against the Hokies’ new offense.
McMillian paced the Hokies with 127 yards rushing and the score.
And then, from the heavens and/or the Hokies, a gift. The Vols recovered five fumbles as a team. Josh Dobbs hit Jauan Jennings on the fade for a touchdown on the very next play.
“We woke up a little bit and played Tennessee-style football tonight”, Tennessee coach Butch Jones said.
That started an avalanche of 31 straight Vols points that followed a familiar template: The defense got the ball to the offense, normally in prime position, and Dobbs cashed in with big plays.
But keeping with the NASCAR theme, the Hokies careened into a wall, undone by crippling penalties, five fumbles, and numerous big plays as Tennessee found a different gear. Jerod Evans fumbled, setting Tennessee up just five yards from the goal line.
As we expected, Virginia Tech was quite vanilla offensively against Liberty.
It was a disastrous day for Virginia Tech in terms of ball security and game discipline.
“Constructing the locker rooms required a long checklist”, said Marcus Smith, president and CEO for Speedway Motorsports.
Dobbs tacked on a 27-yard scoring run with 6:45 left for a 38-17 advantage and teammate John Kelly’s 4-yard run 13 seconds later – after the Hokies’ fifth lost fumble on a bad shotgun snap – finished the scoring.
Dobbs threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more while gaining 106 yards on the ground.
Those seeking an immediate impact from first-year Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente had reason to be thrilled during the first 15 minutes of Saturday night’s Battle at Bristol Motor Speedway against No. 17 Tennessee. “We just have to learn how to start faster. The field is the same size and you have to try as much as you can to block that out”, said Rogers, who scored Virginia Tech’s first touchdown. Regardless of a poor showing, Tennessee has a talented football team with a lot of NFL talent.
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“We’ll look at it and come up with a plan, but what we’re doing, what we’ve done in the past, it hasn’t been an issue”, Fuente said.
