It took effort for Tennessee Football to not hang 100 on the Kent State Golden Flashes, as the Vols were absolutely dominant all night. The first time they didn’t score a touchdown when they had the ball was on the first drive of the second half. Here’s what we learned from the Vols’ dominating 71-0 victory over this MAC foe at Neyland Stadium.
Run game was unintentionally dominant.
The Vols may have actually wanted to run more of an offense, but they couldn’t because of the fact that the Vols were so dominant in the run game every play on the ground turned into a big game. Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop both went for over 100 yards in the first half, and they were often on short-yardage plays. Peyton Lewis had 99 yards too.
Stars were relatively quiet for Tennessee Football.
Nico Iamaleava only threw for 170 yards and one touchdown before he was pulled. James Pearce Jr. had no sacks. Bru McCoy had just one catch. The Vols were so dominant on the ground that the stars in the passing game were never going to get going, and Kent State’s mistakes when they had the ball limited Pearce’s ability to make big plays.
Kent State is too bad to give any real credit.
Look, this is arguably the worst team Tennessee Football has ever faced. The Golden Flashes were blown out by an NAIA team the week before, and Kenni Burns is not running a good program there. As a result, it’s almost impossible to determine just how good the Vols are from anything that happened in this matchup. They gave up a safety and had two drives killed from just awful snaps.
Josh Heupel isn’t afraid to humiliate anybody.
You can call it bush league, and you may be right, but it speaks to the identity of Tennessee Football under Josh Heupel. Up 30-0 in the first quarter against the worst team in FBS play, Heupel dialed up an onside kick to set up another score for the Vols. Maybe he wanted to make sure he pulled his starters earlier, but that was totally unnecessary.
There is a clear backup QB for Tennessee Football
Once the Vols pulled Iamaleava, Gaston Moore came in and completed all four of his passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Then, on the first drive of the second half, Jake Merklinger came in, and there was a noticeable drop-off, as Merklinger was 2-of-5 for 17 yards, and UT’s two drives with him stalled in field goals. Despite the hype behind Merklinger, Moore is the better quarterback for now.
