Recap, Highlights: Tennessee beats UTSA, 45-14

Much-needed easy day.

Coming off of a loss to Florida and going into an interesting game against UTSA, Tennessee fans didn’t exactly know how to feel about this team going into Saturday. Thankfully, the Volunteers left no doubt.

Tennessee ran away with this one, putting the Roadrunners on ice early on. The Volunteers cruised to a 45-14 victory, setting the stage for the main portion of their SEC schedule, which kicks off next week.

Tennessee breezes past UTSA

Quite literally from the opening offensive snap of the game, Tennessee was in full control. Joe Milton ran 81 yards to the house to get this one going, pushing Tennessee out to an early lead.

The ground game continued on the next drive, as Dylan Sampson pushed one in for six. Milton would come back through the air to hit Kaleb Webb for another touchdown, the first of Webb’s career. Very quickly, Tennessee was out to a 21-0 lead on a good UTSA team.

The Roadrunners played without star quarterback Frank Harris today, who continues to battle a turf toe injury. Eddie Lee Marburger filled in for him, but was largely ineffective in the first half. Owen McCown replaced him in the second half.

McCown found some rhythm to open the second half, putting together two touchdown drives. UTSA cut the lead to 31-14, but that’s as far as they would get.

Tennessee would score two more times on the ground — Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson again — to extend their lead to 45-14. That’s where this one would end. Tennessee moves to 3-1 on the season, ready to tackle the teeth of their schedule in the coming weeks.

Tennessee-UTSA Highlights

Here’s Joe Milton, starting the game off with an 81 yard house call.

Milton pushed the lead to 28-0 with this strike to Ramel Keyton. Milton put this one in a place where Keyton could make a play, and Ramel delivered

Dylan Sampson, who didn’t play last week at Florida, got the bulk of the carries today. Here’s one of his two touchdowns.

Final Stats

Joe Milton: 18-31, 209 2 TDs (89 rushing yards, TD)

Dylan Sampson: 11 carries, 139 yards, 2 TDs

Jabari Small: 9 carries, 61 yards, TD

Ramel Keyton: 1 catch, 48 yards, TD

Bru McCoy: 3 catches, 30 yards

Squirrel White: 4 catches, 29 yards

Dont’e Thornton: 2 catches, 24 yards

Kaleb Webb: 2 catches, 22 yards, TD

Aaron Beasley: 9 tackles

Elijah Herring: 8 tackles

Tyre West: 6 tackles

Tamarion McDonald: 7 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT