All week the national media told you the same thing about Kentucky.
They don’t make mistakes. They don’t beat themselves. Five turnovers all season. Grown-up football. The 7-1, sixth-ranked Wildcats were coming to Neyland to show the SEC they’d finally arrived.
Kentucky left Knoxville with three turnovers, zero touchdowns and six points.
Tennessee 34, Kentucky 6.
Since 1984, Kentucky has won exactly once at Neyland Stadium. Make that 1-20. There are just some things a new coach can’t fix in one year.
I’m not going to pretend I was calm at halftime. It was 10-6. Kentucky had run 40 plays to our 22. Our offense had four first downs. FOUR. The message boards were melting down about play-calling, and I was right there with them.
Then Tennessee won the second half 24-0, including a 21-0 fourth quarter, and it was over.
Here’s the stat I can’t stop thinking about. Kentucky held the ball for more than 35 minutes. They won time of possession by nearly 11 minutes and lost by 28. You can play keep-away all night, but it doesn’t help if you keep handing the ball back. Jim Knowles’ defense took it from them three times.
Arion Carter played like a grown man among boys
Thirteen tackles. Two sacks. Four tackles for loss.
Kentucky’s entire defense had two tackles for loss. One Tennessee linebacker doubled the whole Kentucky defense.
Vols fans were comparing his game to Al Wilson against Florida in ’98 before the band even left the field. That’s the highest compliment a Tennessee linebacker can get, and nobody was laughing.
And the defense did it on purpose. Kentucky moved the ball between the 20s all night. Knowles let them have the short stuff and slammed the door once they got close. Two field goals. That’s Kentucky’s whole highlight reel. Frame it, Lexington.
And the offense? It woke up
Heupel told his backs at halftime the run game would show up in the second half. It did. DeSean Bishop: 25 carries, 109 yards, two touchdowns, and over 1,000 yards for the season. Daune Morris broke a 66-yarder in the first quarter. The Vols ran for 240 yards as a team behind a line that was moving people, with Donovan Haslam leading the way. George MacIntyre didn’t try to be a hero. He went 9 of 14 and didn’t turn it over. Nobody on Tennessee did. Zero turnovers.
And that trick play to Mike Matthews for a 24-yard touchdown? Faizon Brandon had just come in on a short third down and ripped off a 29-yard run. So when he lined up again and took off to the right, Kentucky bit. Then he flipped it to Matthews going the other way, and nobody was within 10 yards of him. That’s not luck. That’s coaching.
Here’s my take, and you can screenshot it
This is the best Tennessee defense I can remember, and this team is built for December. I loved the 2022 offense. Fifty a week was fun. But fun doesn’t win in the cold. Defense, running the ball and not turning it over does.
Kentucky came to Neyland to prove it belonged. Tennessee proved something else: when this defense plays like that, it can beat anybody.
Next up is Texas A&M on the road. Win that, and the committee will have to explain why it keeps ranking teams Tennessee beat ahead of Tennessee.
But that’s tomorrow’s column.
As for Kentucky: I didn’t have to wear your hat. You can keep it. You’ll need something to pull over your eyes on the drive back up I-75. And hey, look on the bright side, Big Blue Nation.
Basketball season already started.
Go Vols.
Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.
