By Nathan Warters, the Sports Xchange
BRISTOL, Tenn. — No. 17 Tennessee opened the season as a favorite to win the Southeastern Conference’s East Division title, but optimism faded when the Volunteers struggled to put away Appalachian State at home in their season opener.
The Vols appeared to get their season back on track, however, in a convincing 45-24 victory over Virginia Tech in front of a college football record 156,990 fans at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
Tennessee faced adversity at the beginning of the game, falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, but it settled down and dominated the rest of the way.
“We just stayed the course and followed the course and kept playing,” Vols coach Butch Jones said.
Senior quarterback Joshua Dobbs passed for three touchdowns and rushed for two, and Tennessee (2-0) rushed for 239 yards as a team in a convincing offensive performance. The defense made big plays, forcing five turnovers while holding to Hokies (1-1) to only 10 points in the final three quarters after yielding 14 in the first.
“They deserved to win,” Virginia Tech first-year coach Justin Fuente said.
Virginia Tech controlled the first quarter before Tennessee woke up and rolled off 31 straight points. The Vols scored 21 points off of five Hokies’ fumbles.
It was a stark contrast to Tennessee’s performance in the opener against the Mountaineers. In that game, the Vols struggled to put away Appalachian State before squeaking by in overtime 20-13.
“We’re 2-0. That’s our goal,” said Dobbs, who completed 10 of 19 passes for 91 yards and averaged 7.6 yards per carry against the Hokies. “At the end of the day, every time you step on the field, you play to win.”
Tennessee opened the season in the top 10 in every major poll but dropped after its narrow opening victory. The Vols figure to move up again after winning handily on a big national stage, but that’s not a major concern for the players.
They have big conference games coming up, so making improvements and preparing to battle for the SEC East crown is their top goal.
“We don’t really care about the polls,” said Tennessee junior running back Alvin Kamara, one of three players to catch a touchdown pass from Dobbs. “I think everybody in that locker room is in this for Tennessee. I really don’t care about a number in front of Tennessee. That ‘T’ is all I care about honestly.”
The Vols host Ohio at home next week in a nonconference contest before playing key SEC East matchups against Florida (home) and Georgia (road) in consecutive weeks.
A win over the Bobcats this week would improve Tennessee to 3-0 for the first time since the 2004 season.
“Each game we’ll look at it, and there’s going to be good stuff. There’s going to be stuff we need to improve on. We understand that,” Dobbs said. “We’ll take the good and continue to do that and fix the stuff we can improve and push to be 3-0 next week.”