Tennessee offensive lineman Trey Smith discussed Tennessee’s fourth-quarter comeback win over Indiana with members of the media outside the Jacksonville Jaguars team meeting room.
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tennessee rallied for 14 points in the final quarter en route to a thrilling 23-22 win over Indiana in the 75th TaxSlayer Gator Bowl at TIAA Bank Stadium.
With the victory, UT finishes the season 8-5 overall and 5-3 in the SEC to give second-year head coach Jeremy Pruitt his first bowl win.
After recovering an onside kick with 4:19 to play, freshman running back Eric Gray scored the game-tying touchdown on a 16-yard rush. Brent Cimaglia then put Tennessee ahead for good with the ensuing extra point.
“Our kids kind of kept on fighting,” head coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “Our coaches done a really nice job, and our fan base — all the orange was there when the clock struck zero, that was there when the game started, and we can’t say enough about our fan support and what they mean to everybody associated with this organization.”
Gray earned the Gator Bowl MVP award, pacing the Vols with 86 yards on the ground and 34 receiving yards while also recovering the aforementioned onside kick.
“For me, being a Tennessee boy and being here at Tennessee, it’s been unbelievable,” Gray said. “It’s been an unbelievable journey. I fell in love with the place early. It’s something I dreamed about. It’s something I dreamed about as a kid, playing college football, playing in a bowl game. Being MVP has been amazing. I just want to say all glory to God.”
Redshirt junior quarterback Jarrett Guarantano rebounced from a pair of interceptions earlier in the game to lead the Vols passing attack with 221 yards through the air.
True freshman linebacker Henry To’o To’o led the defense with eight tackles and a pass breakup while junior defensive back Shawn Shamburger made his first-career interception and posted a sack.
A scoreless first quarter was highlighted by Shamburger’s interception. Offensively, Ramel Keyton had 60 receiving yards on a pair of catches.
UT opened the scoring with a 23-yard field goal from Brent Cimaglia in the second quarter. The Vols drove 67 yards on 12 plays to go up 3-0 with 5:53 left in the first half.
Later in the quarter, Shamburger sacked IU’s Peyton Ramsey for a loss of 10 yards to force a punt. The sack set up a 14 play, 50-yard UT scoring drive, which was capped by a Cimaglia 32-yard field goal to put Tennessee ahead 6-0. Indiana ended the half with a 24-yard field goal to cut its deficit to 6-3 after intercepting Guarantano late in the second quarter.
After IU amassed just 69 total yards in the first half, the Hoosiers opened the second half with a 12 play, 69-yard touchdown drive to give them a 10-6 lead.
Ty Chandler returned the ensuing kickoff 47 yards to give the Vols great field position, but Jamar Johnson recorded a 63-yard pick-six to increase Indiana’s lead to 10. IU kicker Logan Justus missed the extra point, which would turn out to loom large later in the game.
True freshman Brian Maurer came in to play quarterback on the second drive of the third quarter and went 1-for-3 with 17 yards passing and eight yards on the ground to lead UT into field-goal range. Cimaglia connected on his third and final field goal of the game, a 43-yarder, to cut IU’s lead to seven.
Back-to-back field goals by Justus put the Hoosiers back ahead by 13 with 10:27 remaining in the game, but Tennessee would not be denied.
The Vols scored their first touchdown of game with 4:21 left in the fourth quarter on a Quavaris Crouch 1-yard plunge to cut the deficit to six. Guarantano and Jauan Jennings connected twice for 27 yards to set up the score. After the scoring drive, Paxton Brooks executed a perfect onside kick that was recovered by Gray at the 46-yard line. It marked the first time that the Vols had recovered an onside kick since Sept. 10, 2011 against Cincinnati.
“When they called it, we have it in the plan all week and we go through it in practice and execute it throughout the week,” Brooks said. “I felt confident in our ability to execute it in the game and the opportunity came.
“The coaches saw what they wanted to see in the formation that they lined up in, they called it and thankfully we got a lucky roll. The guys on the outside, credit to them; Eric and Nigel and all of the guys for getting their blocks and Eric for going and getting it. Credit to them.”
The recovery set up the Vols game-winning drive, which was capped by a 16-yard rushing touchdown by Gray to tie the game at 22. Cimaglia drilled the extra point to put the Vols up 23-22 with 3:51 remaining in the game.
The Vols defense stood tall with the game on the line, forcing a 51-yard field goal that missed wide right with 2:12 remaining, before holding the Hoosiers off one final time on their final possession when Ramsey’s pass attempt on fourth-and-10 fell incomplete.
UT Athletics
Jeremy Pruitt and Eric Gray Press Conference
JEREMY PRUITT: First off, what a fantastic ballgame. The players on both teams, the way they competed in the game, I can’t say enough about Indiana, Coach Allen and his staff and what a great job that they did. You know, and then you look at our guys, it took 60 minutes, but our guys continued to scratch and claw and just kept trying to find a way. You know, we kind of changed some things during the game a little bit on both sides of the ball, just trying to find something that was working.
Offensively we got a drive going there in the fourth quarter. We scored there. We get the onside kick and punch it in in three plays and kind of held on the entire — the rest of the way there.
But if you look at the way the game went, we probably messed it up about as bad as you can for the middle eight of the game. We get the ball with three minutes and 36 seconds to go in the second quarter, got a 3rd down there, we turned the ball over. Results in three points. Indiana gets the ball to start the second half, they convert several 3rd downs there. We have them in a 2nd-and-20, they make a good call, we don’t play the screen play correctly, and it turns into a 2nd-and-1, and they just kept — whether it was running the football or getting the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, lots of empty, lots of adjustments in the game. But they score there. Ty pops a return there. You think we’re fixing to get a little momentum, and then we throw a pick six. So there’s 17 points that didn’t go to the good guys in that stretch there.
But our kids kind of kept on fighting. Our coaches done a really nice job, and our fan base — all the orange was there when the clock struck zero that was there when the game started, and we can’t say enough about our fan support and what they mean to everybody associated with this organization.
Q. Jeremy, does this game kind of epitomize this team? And Eric, a year ago at this point you’re getting ready to play in the game down in San Antonio and in this game you’ve had such a huge impact. Talk about that growth.
JEREMY PRUITT: Well, I think you’re right. You really don’t find out a whole lot about yourself or a team until you face adversity. And we’ve faced a lot this year. A lot of it was self-inflicting, but still, it is what it is.
You know, I really think the assistant coaches on our staff, because of the men that they are and the character that they have, I really think the team kind of took on their personalities, stayed the course, looked in the mirror and said, how can I improve, how can I be my best. Wasn’t looking for excuses. We owned who we were and worked hard to improve, and I think that says a whole lot about our assistant coaches, everybody associated in our program, and the players on our team. You know, no quitters on that team.
ERIC GRAY: Yeah, I agree with Coach Pruitt, what he said. Earlier in the season he brought us all in after a game and said we’re going to turn it around after this. This is the last time we’re going to turn it around, and we all bought in. We all bought in and we said we’re going to put on more steam when we face adversity, we’re going to put on more steam and that’s exactly what we did, and it’s a great way to finish.
Q. Jeremy, why did you decide to do the onside kick in that situation? And then Eric, can you take us through that play from your perspective?
JEREMY PRUITT: Well, I think there’s four minutes and 34 seconds to go. We got three time-outs. It was something that we felt was there when we were breaking them down, and as the game went, we felt like it was there. We’ve probably repped it 500 or 600 times over the last six months. Had confidence in our players. So just felt like we needed to do it there, and Paxton laid down a great kick. Eric — we got three guys that’s going to block the three returners, and we got two guys getting the ball. Eric timed it right, and it was a great kick. Wasn’t much they could do based off how they were aligned.
ERIC GRAY: Yeah, that’s a big testament to Paxton, like he said. We’ve practiced it over and over a thousand times. We just never ran it. We saw that look on film all week. We saw that look when they backed their guys up and the hole was there. I was just I caught it when it was 10 yards.
Q. You talked about this game kind of reflecting what the season has been like for your team. What about for Jarrett on a personal level? You yank him in the third quarter and he comes back to lead two touchdown drives in the final seven minutes. What does that say about him to kind of reverse that mojo?
JEREMY PRUITT: Well, I played for a high school basketball coach. If you shot a shot and you missed it and you wasn’t the first one back on defense, he took you out of the game. I learned at an early age if I was going to shoot it I’d better at least get back fast on defense, right. The way I look at quarterbacks, Jarrett didn’t play good. You know, I have lots of confidence in him, but he didn’t play good, and if you don’t play good, we’ve got other good players behind him. We put Brian in. Brian didn’t play good. Probably threw three plays that should have been intercepted and they kicked a field goal, you know. It’s part of it. Nobody is entitled to anything around here. We have to earn it, earn every bit of it. Jarrett knows it, Brian knows it, everybody that’s associated with our program knows it.
It’s a performance-based industry, and we’ve got to perform. Jarrett performed pretty good when he came back in there, you know, and we needed him to.
Q. Eric, on that play, have you fielded onside kicks before? How much onside kick experience do you have?
ERIC GRAY: Well, in practice I feel like I’ve had like 500 reps of the onside kick because we’ve repped it so much. But I’m just glad that I caught it when it was 10 yards.
Q. Following up on JG, when you decided to put him back into the game, did you have a conversation with him about wiping the clean slate? Take us through that decision and then maybe some of the conversations you had with Jarrett before inserting him back into the game.
JEREMY PRUITT: Let me tell you, Jarrett, he’s got thick skin, okay. He’s been through the wars. He knows the expectations that we have, that he has for himself. So sometimes as a quarterback it helps to go over there and watch it from the sideline for a couple of series, you know. Maybe you see a little something that you didn’t see before, you kind of gather yourself, get your composure, figure out what I need to do to play better, and that’s what we did. It’s really no secret.
When the game was on the line, that’s who we wanted in the game. You know what? He came through. He came through, like he has the last six games.
Q. Can you talk about just this senior group that you’ll look back on in a couple years from now, talk about their play and especially over the last six to seven weeks, it just seems like y’all hit a switch. Can you talk about that, especially with this group?
JEREMY PRUITT: You know, I think everybody that’s been coming to the games, they see what kind of football players these guys are. These guys all had phenomenal years. You know, what I like to say is what I think about them as people. When you talk about trusting somebody, these guys are easy to trust because they’re dependable. You can count on them. They have character. They represent the university and themselves, their family in the right way. They’re really, really good football players, and we’re going to miss them, you know, and these guys are going to have an opportunity to play some more football, and I hope they get to play for a long time.
But I’ll never forget them. I’ll never forget them because they hung in there when they didn’t have to. They hung in there when it wasn’t easy to do, which says a whole lot about them.
Q. Earlier you discussed how your assistants grew throughout the season. How would you say that you grew as a coach during the season that started inauspiciously and finished with a win in January?
JEREMY PRUITT: Well, one thing, you realize you don’t have all the answers. Fortunate enough — I’ve been fortunate enough to hire really good staff and using these guys. There’s lots of good coaches on our staff. Probably delegating, letting these guys, starting with defensively, letting Coach Ansley and Coach Rumph, Coach Sherrer, Coach Rock kind of doing their thing on defense and kind of just helping them along the way, not butting in, letting Jim and Tee and those guys do it on offense. You know, offensively I’ve got a lot of really good plays to run after the play is over with. You know, so it’s probably not a whole lot of fun to be on that headset, especially the first three quarters tonight.
Q. You’ve got a freshman MVP here and obviously a bowl game win. How much can a win like this, especially the way it ended, how much momentum does that take you into the off-season and into next season?
JEREMY PRUITT: You know, it’s something for these guys that are coming back, the example that the seniors that are leaving here, that they’ve set. Most of those guys have graduated, and if they haven’t graduated they’re going to graduate soon. So first off, doing the right things academically, which is something that’s important to everybody in our program.
You know, but we’re excited about the future of our program because of guys like Eric Gray. You don’t have to spend a whole lot of time with Eric Gray to figure out that he’s made the right way. He’s got the right stuff inside of him. You see it out there on the field. Just hang around him a little bit off the field; you’ll appreciate him that much more.
Q. On that onside kick, were you tempted at times earlier this year to try that same kick? You said you’ve been working on it for a while. Were there other games where it popped into your head? And Jaylen McCollough, I know you haven’t seen film yet, but it looked like he was all over the place today making plays.
JEREMY PRUITT: Well, I’m kind of a go-for-it guy. I look at myself a little bit as a long shot. It hadn’t been that long ago I was coaching high school ball, lining off the field, washing the uniforms and things like that, and now I’m the head coach at the University of Tennessee. If it looks like it’s there, you might as well take it is the way I look at it. That’s kind of the way we coach, you know, rather get them before they get us.
You said he was all over the field? See, that’s the thing about coaching. Right before I walked in here, I said, Jaylen, I don’t remember much except them catching that ball on you right there at the end. No, Jaylen is a guy, much like Eric, high character, winner, competitor, tough, smart. You know, these guys have a lot of the same qualities as these seniors that just walked out the door, and that’s the type of guys we’re looking for in this program.
Q. When you look back — you talked about looking back at the senior class, but this freshman class, did you anticipate them being as ready as they were and kind of the progression Eric, Henry, obviously Roman made a play tonight, got to the quarterback, several guys out there making plays that were freshmen?
JEREMY PRUITT: You know, when we recruit, there’s certain criteria that we look for for critical factors for every position. But probably the most important thing is the makeup. Who are they? What kind of student are they? Are they a leader? Do they got character? Are they dependable? And that’s something that we have questions about when it comes to recruiting everybody, and we feel like we’ve recruited some really good student-athletes in this past class.
Q. We saw you after the game lean over to Jauan and he was grasping that trophy and you asked him for a picture. Looked like he didn’t want to give the trophy to anybody else. What has your relationship been like with him throughout his career and your career at Tennessee, and I wanted to ask Eric, being from Tennessee, choosing to stay at Tennessee, now MVP of a bowl game in your freshman year, how do you sum up how this season has been for you?
JEREMY PRUITT: Can I talk about Jauan first? So the first time I ever met Jauan Jennings he comes in my office and we’re going to decide and create a plan to see if he’s going to be able to get back on the team. I think everybody knows this, pretty well documented. But anyhow, so we lay out a plan, and it’s a pretty tough deal. There’s lots of things — and Jauan done absolutely every bit of it to do it. But by the time he left my office, he was trying to negotiate what position he was going to play, and I said, dude, you’re not even on the team yet, all right, so let’s just see if we can make it to this first thing before we start talking that way. But that’s the way Jauan is. You know, he’s always in there trying to represent.
ERIC GRAY: For me, like you said, being a Tennessee boy and being here at Tennessee, it’s been unbelievable. It’s been an unbelievable journey. I fell in love with the place early. You can’t — it’s something I dreamed about. It’s something I dreamed about as a kid, playing college football, playing in a bowl game. Being MVP has been amazing. I just want to say all glory to God.
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Additional Player Quotes
Sophomore kicker Paxton Brooks
On the onside kick call:
“When they called it, we have it in the plan all week and we go through it in practice and execute it throughout the week. I felt confident in our ability to execute it in the game and the opportunity came. The coaches saw what they wanted to see in the formation that they lined up in, they called it and thankfully we got a lucky roll. The guys on the outside, credit to them; Eric and Nigel and all of the guys for getting their blocks and Eric for going and getting it. Credit to them.”
On what he felt when Eric got the ball:
“The feeling is relief. We had four last year that we were very close to getting. All of those were tough. This year, we work it every week in practice and for it to pay off really felt great. I knew it, I had full faith in Eric and those guys. I knew he was going to recover it. As soon as I hit it, I knew he was going to be there.”
Henry To’o To’o, Fr. LB
On what kept the team confident:
“We didn’t have the start that we wanted, but we worked. Coach Pruitt emphasizes us working hard and every day we come to practice and come to film, we’re going to work. All that excitement just came from all that hard work we put in during the season.”
On what how the defense felt when Tennessee came within one possession:
“We were locked in (on the sideline). We were tuned in. We knew we had a chance and we knew we just needed one stop. We needed a stop to get our offense back on the field to score and that’s what we got.”
On why the team remained confident when it was trailing:
“We’ve been through worse. We’ve been down, we’ve been down and out. We’ve been in a time where everybody counted us out and nobody believed in Tennessee football and that motivates us. That makes our defense want to come back and come harder.”
Daniel Bituli, Sr. LB
On the future of Tennessee football:
“The team is in really good hands. There are a bunch of hungry guys and guys that want to go out there and compete, guys that are here to win games. I’m excited to see how much they grow these next couple of years.”
On if he is comfortable leaving things in the hands of freshman Henry To’o To’o:
“I’m comfortable doing it (leaving the team in Henry To’o To’o’s hands). Not only him, but we have a bunch of young guys that are playing for us right now. We have a bunvh of guys that we recruited that are going to come in and step up just like he did this year. So I’m really excited about the future of this team.”
Trey Smith, Jr. OL
On what led to the Vols’ comeback win:
“Showing the fight and resiliency, being down a touchdown and a half, being two possessions down with five minutes left in the fourth, that’s insane. Some teams would quit, but we never yielded, we just kept going. We kept sticking to the plan.”
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Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano broke down being benched to regroup and come back in to rally to win the 2020 Taxslayer Gator Bowl.
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Tennessee freshman RB Eric Gray scored on a 16-yard TD run with just under four minutes remaining. It proved to be the winning score as UT held on to win 23-22 over Indiana in the TaxSlayer gator Bowl.
Gray went on to earn MVP honors for the bowl game.
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By Jimmy Hyams
Shades of Gray – Eric Gray – carried Tennessee to an odds-defying victory over Indiana 23-22 Thursday night in the Taxslayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville.
Gray, a freshman running back, sparked a late-game touchdown drive, recovered an on-side kick, then scored the game-winning touchdown with less than four minutes left as the Vols rallied from a 22-9 deficit in the fourth quarter.
FBS teams were 0-471 this season when trailing by 13 with less than five minutes left – until UT’s win.
UT was 0-for-14 on on-side kicks since 2011 – until Gray’s recovery.
And Jeremy Pruitt was 0-10 as Tennessee’s coach when trailing after three quarters – until Thursday night.
“Everybody in the country gave up on this team,’’ Pruitt said, “but the fans didn’t.’’
Tennessee (8-5) looked all but doomed after punting the ball with nine minutes left, down 13. The offense hadn’t scored a touchdown in over three quarters and looked stuck in neutral. Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano had played so poorly, he got pulled in the third quarter after throwing a pick six.
But seemingly out of nowhere, with 7:06 left and pinned back at its 18, the offense clicked.
“We were just saying, `We got to put on more steam. The game is not over,’’’ Gray said.
No, it wasn’t.
With Indiana playing what appeared to be a prevent defense, Guarantano hit Gray on two check downs for 12 and 22 yards. Then, he found Jauan Jennings for 23. A holding call on Indiana on third-and-10 gave UT a first down at the 6, and Quavaris Crouch scored three plays later on a 1-yard power run to make it 22-16 with 4:21 left.
Plenty of time to kick deep, get a stop and try to score.
But Pruitt had other ideas – like an on-side kick. Film study showed a gap in Indiana’s front line on kickoffs.
“Coach said it was there,’’ said kicker Paxton Brooks. “We saw it in the formation and got the look we wanted. I just had to put it in that gap.’’
He did so with precision. Gray waited until the ball barely traveled 10 yards and made the recovery against a stunned band of Hoosiers.
“Perfect play, perfect kick, perfect call,’’ said Marquez Callaway.
So why the on-side kick?
“We were down a score,’’ Pruitt said, succinctly, later adding that UT had practiced that onside kick 500-600 times.
From his 46, Guarantano, who didn’t complete a pass in the third quarter, hit Josh Palmer for 24 yards. A face mask moved the ball to the Indiana 16. Two plays later, Gray followed Trey Smith’s block into the end zone.
Brent Cimaglia added the game-winning point after with 3:51 left.
That was plenty of time for Indiana to respond and it did, completing a 39-yard pass. But Logan Justus, who missed an extra point earlier in the game, hooked a 52-yard field-goal attempt with 2:12 left.
UT was stopped a foot from gaining a first down and running out the clock. After a punt, Indiana took over at its 19 with 55 seconds left and non timeouts.
Indiana had completions of 24 and 12 yards to reach the UT 45. But quarterback Peyton Ramsey – named after UT’s Peyton Manning – misfired on four consecutive passes.
“It feels amazing,’’ said Gray, voted the game’s MVP. “You couldn’t dream of something like this.’’
Guarantano turned what could have been a nightmare into a dream-like ending.
“Crazy game,’’ he said. “We won, so I’m thankful for that.’’
The victory was the sixth in a row for UT and the seventh in eight games after stumbling out of the gate 1-4, including a loss to Georgia State, a 25-point underdog.
“We love each other man, that’s all there is,’’ Guarantano said of the turnaround. “Eight-and-five is a good year but it could have definitely been better. I’m just glad we finished on a high note.’’
So is Pruitt. He made the risky decision to bench Guarantano, then go back to the junior in the third quarter.
“Sometimes as a quarterback,’’ Pruitt said, “when you stand on the sidelines a series or two, the game slows down. We weren’t playing at our best there (at quarterback).’’
The Vols hit their stride when they went to a two-minute offense.
“We probably should have gone (uptempo) earlier in the game,’’ Pruitt admitted. Pruitt praised his team for its grit.
“Our guys kept fighting, trying to find a way to win,’’ Pruitt said. “It’s a 60-minute game and it took all 60 minutes.’’
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KNOXVILLE – Tenn. – A dominant effort in the paint and an outstanding defensive second quarter helped the Lady Vols give Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper a victory in her Southeastern Conference debut Thursday, as No. 22/23 UT defeated Missouri, 77-66, to open conference play.
Tennessee (11-2, 1-0 SEC) held the Tigers (3-11, 0-1 SEC) to three field goals and just seven points in the second period. And the Lady Vols outscored Mizzou 44-22 in the paint during Thursday’s triumph.
The Lady Vols lived up to their reputation as one of the nation’s top-rebounding teams, out-rebounding the Tigers, 43-22. Tennessee pulled down 18 offensive boards and enjoyed a 19-4 edge in second-chance points.
Lady Vol junior Rennia Davis recorded her seventh double-double of the season and the 25th of her career Thursday, finishing with 19 team-high points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Jazmine Massengill handed out a career-high 12 assists and also added seven points and six rebounds.
Tamari Key totaled 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, and fellow freshman Jordan Horston scored 13.
The teams traded blows during the game’s first five minutes. Tennessee held a 14-12 lead at the first media timeout of the afternoon—the 4:18 mark in the first quarter. Each team was shooting 50 percent from the field at that point.
Mizzou then clamped down on defense—holding the Lady Vols without a field goal for close to five minutes—and strung together a 9-2 run to lead by five at the end of the first quarter.
The Tigers’ drained five 3-pointers in the opening frame, matching UT’s long-range output for the entire game. The Lady Vols held Mizzou to just six more triples over the game’s final 30 minutes, as nearly half of the Tigers’ 23 field goals Thursday came from beyond the arc.
Tennessee buckled down defensively in the second quarter, holding Missouri to 3-of-15 shooting in the frame. The Lady Vols, meanwhile, shot 62 percent (8 of 13) in the second quarter.
A transition layup in traffic by UT sophomore Rae Burrell less than a minute before halftime capped an 8-0 run and gave the Big Orange a 32-28 lead at the midway point.
Horston led the Lady Vols with eight first-half points, while fellow starters Lou Brown and Davis added six points each.
Massengill assisted on back-to-back baskets by Key early in the third quarter, pushing UT’s lead to eight points and forcing a timeout by the Tigers.
Minutes later, the Massengill-to-Key combo struck again on a fast break, causing Mizzou to burn another timeout in an effort to quell a 12-2 Tennessee run that gave the Lady Vols a 46-32 advantage.
The Tigers fought back in the closing minutes of the third quarter, making four straight field-goal attempts at one point and closing the period on a 9-2 run that trimmed the Tennessee lead to seven, 51-44.
A 3-pointer by Mizzou’s Haley Troup early in the fourth quarter cut the Lady Vols’ lead to 51-47, but that was as close as the Tigers would come. Tennessee erupted offensively in the game’s final 10 minutes, scoring 26 fourth-quarter points on 10 of 19 shooting.
Senior Amber Smith was Mizzou’s leading scorer with 22 points.
Up Next: The Lady Vols hit the road for a 4 p.m. matchup at No. 13/13 Kentucky on Sunday. The game will be televised by ESPN2.
UT In SEC Openers: The win over the Tigers was UT’s sixth straight in an SEC opener, moving the Lady Vols to 32-6 all-time, including 17-3 at home.
Massengill Dishing: Sophomore point guard Jazmine Massengill doled out a career-high 12 assists while committing only one turnover against Mizzou to make her way into the record book, tying for sixth-most single-game assists in Lady Vol history. She has managed double-digit assists in two of the last three games, averaging 8.0 apg. over that span while turning the ball over only three times.
Hot Hands: Tennessee shot 50.0% from the floor against Missouri, marking the fourth time this season the team has hit at least half of its shots.
Key Settling In: Freshman Tamari Key set a new career high of 16 points in her first SEC action. After scoring in double figures in just two of the first six games, she has now made her way into double digits in four of the last seven contests.
Davis Climbing The Charts: Tennessee junior Rennia Davis posted her 25th career double-double (seventh this season) against Missouri with 19 points and 12 rebounds. She currently ranks 11th all-time for career double-doubles and third in the SEC among active players behind Unique Thompson (Auburn) and Ayana Mitchell (LSU) who have each recorded 31 in their careers. Her 19 points on the game moved her career total to 1,076, passing Isabelle Harrison and Cierra Burdick and tying with Peggy Evans for 40th all-time among Lady Vol scorers.
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The Tennessee football team attended TopGolf Jacksonville’s event hosting the team on Tuesday. Our bowl coverage is presented by Kings of Real Estate.
Here’s some coverage of the Indiana football team practicing in Jacksonville this week preparing for the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl vs. Tennessee. 12-30-19. Our bowl coverage is presented by Kings of Real Estate.
The Hot Country Knights—a band fronted by an incognito Dierks Bentley—signed a recording contract with Universal Music Group Nashville, which is Dierks’ longtime label partner.
The Hot Country Knights are comprised of Dierks’ road band, performing ’90s country covers while donning mullet wigs and over-the-top attire from the era.
A press release from Universal makes no mention of Dierks, but it does quote his alter ego, Douglas (“Doug”) Douglason, who said: “Some artists out there tried to put the ‘O’ back in country, that was a thing for a while . . . but what it’s really missing is the ‘T.’ Country music has Low-T right now . . . it could use a pick me up, if you know what I mean. Those record label people over at Universal finally realized that only the Knights could be up to a task this big and hard.”
The Hot Country Knights feature lead singer Douglas (“Doug”) Douglason, lead bass player Trevor Travis, lead guitarist Marty Ray (“Rayro”) Roburn, fiddle player Terotej (“Terry”) Dvoraczekynski, steel guitarist Barry Van Ricky and percussionist Monte Montgomery.
Watch the Hot Country Knights invade Universal Music Group to sign their record deal.
photo courtesy Zach Belcher
