Tennessee football shot itself in the foot so often, it didn’t have any toes left.
But despite the turnovers and missed tackles and clock mismanagement, the Vols (4-1) found a way to win at Mississippi State, 41-34 in overtime, denying State its first 5-0 start since 2015.
The king of the court was a bishop – DeSean Bishop. The Knoxville native ripped off a 25-yard run on the first play of the extra period, and the defense, which struggled much of the night, batted down quarterback Blake Shapen’s fourth-and-goal pass from the 5-yard line in overtime to escape the team’s first 0-2 SEC start since 2019.
Linebacker Arion Carter, who had a remarkable 18 tackles, appeared to tip the last-second pass to finally silence the cowbells.
“Great job by (the defense) getting off the field,” coach Josh Heupel said of the overtime. “Relentless effort by them.”
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Tennessee football quarterback Joey Aguilar, who completed 24 of 40 passes for 335 yards and accounted for two touchdowns, engineered a critical drive in the final eight minutes to force overtime. Down by seven points, Aguilar called his own number on a quarterback sweep from the 6-yard line to cap a brilliant 13-play, 75-yard drive that included a clutch fourth-down completion to Chris Brazzell II.
The other key play in the drive was an Aguilar pass to the right to Braylon Staley, who powered his way for 8 yards to the 6 on third-and-6.
Aguilar scored on the next play.
“One of the great attributes about Joey,” Heupel said. “He’s super calm in the storm.”
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Tennessee’s offense scored 27 points but blew a chance for more. That included a touchdown drop by Mike Matthews, a long scoring reception by Brazzell nullified by a questionable offensive pass interference and two interceptions by Aguilar, one that went through Miles Kitselman’s hands and another in traffic that was tipped.
“Offensively, we didn’t take advantage of opportunities,” Heupel said.
Tennessee also fumbled the opening punt of the game, giving State a short field that led to a touchdown. Two other UT turnovers gift-wrapped State touchdown drives of 26 and 17 yards.
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Tennessee’s defense had a devil of a time stopping State’s run game – Fluff Bothwell had 134 of the Bulldogs’ 217 rush yards (not counting sacks). But the Vols did record six sacks and scored two touchdowns. Corner Colton Hood housed an interception 22 yards, and Joshua Josephs rumbled 41 yards on a sack-fumble caused by Tyre West.
Both of those scores gave Tennessee football a 3-point lead.
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The strip-sack was vital since State had converted a fake punt from its own 33 on the play before with hopes of extending a four-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Even with those humongous plays, the Vols couldn’t put State away.
Each time Tennessee took a lead, State answered, forging a 27-27 tie with 10:31 left in the game.
After a State interception led to a 17-yard scoring drive with 7:59 left, Tennessee responded with a long scoring drive.
With the score tied, Tennessee forced a three-and-out with 1:39 left, but Heupel’s poor clock management denied the Vols a legitimate chance to score. His goal was to make sure State wouldn’t have time left if UT didn’t move the ball.
It backfired, to an extent.
With the ball at the UT 26, a Bishop run gained 3 yards. Heupel let the clock run from 1:19 to :45 before a 13-yard completion. Rather than call a timeout, UT’s Aguilar scrambled for 9 yards, and UT called time with 24 seconds left, wasting precious seconds. After an incompletion, Bishop ran for a first down. Rather than call time with 14 seconds left, Aguilar threw a downfield pass, leaving the Vols with four seconds and two timeouts.
A Hail Mary fell incomplete on the last snap of regulation.
Not to be denied, the Vols scored on the first snap of regulation then made a game-winning stop.
Aguilar cracked the 200-yard passing mark for the 29th straight game. Two receivers had over 100 yards – Brazzell with six catches for 104, Matthews with six for 118.
“We’ve had to build a connection in a short period of time,” said Aguilar, who transferred to UT in May.
Bishop led the rushing attack with 11 carries for 72 yards.
While the Vols piled up 466 total yards, State gained 378 on 86 snaps.
“None of it was how you drew it up,” Heupel said after the win. “To win a game when you don’t play your best in a lot of ways, you keep playing, that’s how you win a game like this.”
