By all accounts, Tennessee’s football team took the checkered flag against Virginia Tech in the Battle of Bristol.
Advertisement
The Volunteers forced six turnovers in the game and the Hokies just could not seem to recover from their first fumble.
A sold-out crowd of 150,000 is expected to watch No. 17 Tennessee play Virginia Tech at the NASCAR track about 100 miles from the Volunteers’ campus.
The Tennessee Vols may have been the decisive winners of the biggest game in college football history, but some analysts aren’t quite convinced of the Vols prowess. “Congratulations to Tennessee because they played hard and deserved to win”.
Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) is brought down by Virginia Tech defensive end Ken Ekanem (4) during the first half of an NCAA college football game at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Bristol, Tenn. Virginia Tech is on the 17-yard line.
As it gets closer to game time, Pierson and his team know they are in for long days, and nights. Tennessee fans were easily the majority in the mass of humanity that celebrated a weekend of music and football at a venue used to hosting motor sports.
After the Hokies opened the game with a 14-0 lead, the Volunteers closed out the first half with 24 unanswered points.
“The reality hit our players [Friday] when we came through with all the campers and trailers”, Jones said.
Down 14-0 in the first quarter, Dobbs and Co. started putting points on the board. He ran 14 times for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Dobbs’ later sealed the deal with a 27-yard touchdown run, his fifth score of the game (three passing, two rushing).
“The game started very, very fast and I didn’t like the way we started”, he said.
“Just pleased the way we came out and played”, Durkin said. After determining he was not going to be able to go any farther, three other Hokies fans picked up my son and practically carried him to a waiting stretcher down on the lower area below the entrance gates.
“They deserved to win”, Virginia Tech first-year coach Justin Fuente said. We can look back 10 or 20 years from now and say we were a part of this.
Virginia Tech (1-1), which coughed up four fumbles in its season opener with Liberty, also mixed in eight penalties for 101 yards. He connected with Moore for a 45-yard touchdown pass and Derrick Hayward for a 9-yard score in the second quarter to give Maryland a 31-7 advantage at halftime.
“I call it a Dub”, as in a W, said receiver Jauan Jennings.
So yes, Tennessee can beat Virginia Tech by 28 minus a garbage time touchdown when the Hokies do that. “Josh did a good job of putting it where he (Jennings) could get it”.
All week, the Vols were warned of Virginia Tech’s high-tempo offense, and the Vols countered with a high-powered, quick attack of their own.
Advertisement
Instead, near the end of the first quarter, Hokies’ quarterback Jerod Evans was stripped of the ball by teammate C.J. Carroll, who was motioning across the formation.
