Our staff takes its picks.
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There’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to American football attendance records.
The much-anticipated Battle at Bristol met all expectations with festivities and atmosphere, but five lost fumbles by Virginia Tech helped the Volunteers roll to a convincing victory over the Hokies. The Vols are on a seven-game winning streak, which is their longest since winning seven-straight in 2001. But at least publicly, the Hokies have kept their cool. As far as on the field, the hope is that continues.
“It’s going to be an awesome experience”, Virginia Tech running back Sam Rogers said. There was some rust, but that’s the game to shake it off.
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.
And they saw the repercussions – a drop from No. 9 in the country to No. 17 in the latest AP poll.
Tennessee’s outstanding offense struggled against Appalachian State last Thursday in the team’s season-opener, scoring just 20 points against the Mountaineers. And that’s the type of outcome that should get a lot of its veterans and big-time guys pissed off, frankly. But defensively, there are still are concerns, most notably depth. The Volunteers went up 24-14 on the Hokies at the half. “I’m proud of some things we did out there (Saturday), and I’m not really happy about some other things”.
Two plays later, he tossed a 38-yard touchdown pass to receiver Josh Malone, who got behind Stroman in the end zone. So the top two players on this list were easy. “This group hasn’t, but as a staff, we’ve been at some big venues”.
“I’m from Bristol, Virginia”. However, there were plenty of Tennessee football playmakers in their dominant win over the Hokies. The Sun Devils were criticized for not putting away the Lumberjacks until the fourth quarter, and Graham didn’t like it.
Both teams will be up against a huge crowd and tons of pressure. Dobbs threw for 91 yards and ran for 106.
“We had beat ourselves”, Jones said about the first quarter. Then, Tennessee came out in the second half and scored 21 points and forced five Hokies’ turnovers (four fumbles).
This weekend’s “Battle at Bristol” had been discussed repeatedly in the years since, with arrangements for the game finalized in 2013. I predict it will either be a super close win in overtime or a blowout.
That’s about as impressive as you can be in primetime in front of nearly 157,000 people. “No one likes feeling like we just gave away a game like this, a game we felt like we should’ve been in”.
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Tennessee has a 1-0 record after eking out a win over Appalachian State by a 20-13 finals score, resulting in a ranking of seventeen in the nation. However, the Hokies offense has looked out of control too often this season, like someone driving a sports vehicle for the first time and being unable to properly handle it because they’re not used to its speed.
