By Jimmy Hyams
Before Tennessee took the field against Georgia Tech on Monday night, Vols coach Butch Jones implored his players to have each other’s backs.
Then he said: “Do you have any questions?’’
I have a few.
How do you beat another team when you get outrushed 535 yards to 148?
How do you win a game when you lose time of possession by 23 minutes?
How do you emerge victorious when your offense looks disoriented and out of sync for more than three quarters?
How do you escape with victory when you get dominated at the line of scrimmage?
You win by forcing two key turnovers, blocking a field goal, getting big plays from an unproven receiver, relying on a determined running back. stepping up to stop a two-point conversion – and good fortune.
“If you don’t have competitive character in your football team,’’ Jones said, “you don’t have a win like this.’’
No you don’t.
Never in 32 years of covering Tennessee have I seen a Vols’ team so thoroughly outplayed, yet will its way to win.
Tennessee found enough resolve and resiliency to score an improbable 42-41 double overtime victory over a stunned Georgia Tech team that controlled for most of the game.
Though the score didn’t show it, Georgia Tech was dominant – so dominant, some Tennessee fans departed Atlanta’s Mercedes Benz Stadium early in the third quarter.
Watching the Vols go down after surrendering third down after third down was akin to water torture. Drip by drip by drip – or perhaps sting by sting by sting – the Yellow Jackets toyed with Tennessee.
Georgia Tech, an SEC giant killer a year ago, kept landing punch after punch to Tennessee’s midsection. The Yellow Jackets were Floyd Mayweather, the Vols, Connor McGregor. You knew the outcome, it would just take a little longer to tabulate the result.
Only Tech didn’t count on the tenacity of this Tennessee team.
No one exemplifies that more than running back John Kelly, who managed 128 hard-earned yards and scored four touchdowns.
And no one exemplified it more than sophomore linebacker Daniel Bituli, who recorded an eye-popping 23 tackles and forced a critical fumble in his first start.
“We found out a little bit about our will to win,’’ Jones said.
Bituli wasn’t the only unexpected hero. Reserve defensive tackle Paul Bain blocked a 36-yard field goal attempt on the final play of regulation to force overtime – the first block of his career. Marquez Callaway, who had one catch last season, had four big grabs for 115 yards and two touchdowns. And Darrell Taylor shed two blockers to stop Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall on a 2-point try to end the game in double overtime.
“Even when we were down,’’ Bain said, “there was no doubt in the locker room. We have a will to win.
“Anybody that slept on Tennessee will have a rude awakening.’’
It appeared the offense was asleep in the first half. The Vols punted on four of six possessions, failed to convert on a fourth down and scored a touchdown after a Bituli forced fumble at midfield.
Quarterback Quinten Dormady, in his first start, struggled in the first half. He was 8 of 20 for 52 yards. It didn’t help that he had four or five passes dropped.
Many thought redshirt Jarrett Guarantano would start the second half. But the Vols stuck with the junior from Texas.
It proved to be a wise decision. Dormady was 12 of 17 for 169 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.
“He was very calm,’’ Jones said of Dormady. “He doesn’t get down. He’s even keel.’’
Not many in the Vol Nation were even keel. They seemed ready to throw in the towel when Tech mounted another time-consuming, third-down converting, gut-wrenching drive.
Ahead 28-21 with less than five minutes left, Tech running back J.J. Green (a Georgia transfer) burst into the open field and was headed inside the UT 20-yard line. The Yellow Jackets were surely headed toward a game-clinching score.
But from behind came UT cornerback Rashaan Gaulden, who stripped the ball from Green. It was recovered by UT’s Micah Abernathy at the Vols’ 7-yard line.
“Coaches had been preaching back side pursuit,’’ Gaulden said. “That will save a ship. I saw the ball after he made his cutback move and I went aggressively after the ball.’’
Tennessee took advantage of the monumental break, driving 93 yards in seven plays to tie the game on a Kelly 11-yard touchdown run. The big play in the march: a 40-yard leaping catch by Callaway.
In the first overtime, Tech scored a touchdown first and UT answered.
In the second overtime, UT scored a touchdown first and Tech answered. Only Tech coach Paul Johnson decided to end matters right then and there, going for a two-point conversion.
Taylor fought off two blockers and tagged Marshall at the line of scrimmage, and just like that, Tennessee was headed home with a ninth straight season opening win.
The Vols won despite being shorthanded. They didn’t have starting linebackers Darrin Kirkland Jr. and Austin Smith, or wide receiver Josh Smith, or offensive tackle Chance Hall or suspended left tackle Drew Richmond.
But they did have Bituli and Gaulden and Callaway and Kelly and Bain and former walk-on linebacker Colton Jumper, who recorded 18 tackles.
Jumper was ecstatic to get the win and the game in the rear view mirror.
“They did a really good job of adjusting to what we showed them in the first two series,’’ Jumper said. “It was kind of a cat and mouse game.’’
Then, he added: “I don’t want to hear triple option again.’’
Neither does anyone else in Tennessee’s camp.
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