RECAP: Tennessee drops 50-plus as defense smothers NC State in Vols’ win

The Vols’ defense held NC State to just 143 total yards, racking up three sacks, 13 TFLs and three turnovers, while Nico Iamaleava and Dylan Sampson led the offense with five combined TDs as UT punked NC State, in Charlotte, 51-10.

The defense was absolutely stifling for the majority of the game and held the Wolf Pack to 3-12 on third downs, 0-2 on fourth downs and one red-zone score (a FG) in just two opportunities.

Nico went 16-23 for 211 yards, two TDs and two interceptions but also rushed eight times for 65 yards and one more score. Sampson recorded his second 100-yard game of the year with 132 yards and two TDs on 20 carries.

The game started at a pace that favored NC State, as Tennessee won the coin toss, deferred and put the Wolf Pack offense on the field. Grayson McCall led a drive that didn’t produce any points and didn’t cover many yards but managed three third-down conversions and took nearly seven minutes off the game clock. A second-down sack from Omarr-Norman Lott was the critical play on the first drive that ultimately led to a punt.

The Vols’ first drive included two, 10-yard-plus plays — a Nico Iamaleava scramble for 12 yards and a Dylan Sampson run for 12 yards, but Nico and Bru McCoy couldn’t connect on a pass down the field on third down and the drive fizzled.

Tennessee’s defense gave up just three yards on NC State’s next possession, and the offense got the ball back at the 38-yard line. Nico went 6-6 on the drive as he hit McCoy, Chris Brazzell, Ethan Davis and a shovel pass to Sampson for 49 total yards, then Sampson punched the ball in from nine yards out for the game’s first score and a Tennessee 7-0 lead.

The defense held NC State to -14 rushing yards and just 23 overall yards in the first quarter.

The game livened up a bit in the second quarter as the defense started the second period off with a three-and-out that was finished off by a safety blitz that hit home from Jakobe Thomas.

UT’s next drive included two Sampson runs that accumulated 21 yards and Miles Kitselman’s first reception of the year that went for 16 yards. But, Iamaleava put a little too much on a first-down pass and threw his first interception of the season that the Wolf Pack returned for 29 yards into Tennessee territory.

A Ricky Gibson pass-interference penalty cost the Vols 15 yards on first down, and a McCall second-down throw earned the Pack a first down and trip to the red zone. NC State got as far as the nine-yard line, but the Vols’ defense held and State managed just three points on a 24-yard field goal.

After a rare delay-of-game penalty to start the drive for UT, Iamaleava hit a big play down the field on a 45-yard throw-and-catch to Squirrel White. With no Cam Seldon, freshman DeSean Bishop spelled Sampson, and he scampered for 15 yards after the splash play in the air. But Bishop got two more carries, gained nothing on one and five on another before an incomplete pass stalled the drive. Max Gilbert hit a 32-yard field goal to put Tennessee up 10-3.

Will Brooks made the game-changing play on the next NC State possession, after the Wolf Pack went 59 yards in just four plays and looked to be knocking on the door of a game-tying touchdown. Instead, a McCall pass was bothered by Joshua Josephs, and he overthrew his receiver right into Brooks’ hands for an 85-yard interception return for a score.

NC State gave Tennessee the ball back in good field possession with just fewer than two minutes left in the half, but a holding penalty took the Vols out of field-goal position after two plays that brought the offense to the 29-yard line. The offense managed to get some yardage back, and Gilbert hit his second field goal of the game, this one from 45 yards out to end the half.

With a 20-3 lead and the ball, Tennessee marched 75 yards on 10 plays — including a fourth-down conversion on a designed run by Nico — capped off by a 15-yard pass to Kitselman for a TD.

Tennessee sprinkled in Nico’s ability to run the ball on the previous score with the fourth-down conversion, but doubled down on it with a 31-yard QB draw on which Iamaleava walked into the endzone untouched to put the Vols up 37-3.

Late in the third, NC State managed its only TD of the game on a tipped pass that Aydan White returned for an 87-yard pick-six.

The offense struck again on a drive that bled from the third quarter into the start of the fourth. On a third-and-seven, Nico scrambled and hit Kitselman down the field for a 57-yard, woulda-been score, but it was called back due to an ineligible lineman downfield. Sampson took over the drive, hitting a 21-yard run one play before his 34-yard touchdown rushing TD.

After the defense stopped NC State on another fourth-down attempt, and with Kitselman having already caught a TD, it was only right that Nico found Holden Staes, Tennessee’s other transfer-portal TE for an 18-yard score. Staes made for the eighth different receiver Iamaleava completed a pass to in the game.

Kent State comes to Knoxville next weekend before Tennessee travels to Oklahoma for its first SEC game of the season on September 21.