The Volunteers used a number of different bodies to come out on top.
The final scoreboard might now exactly reflect it, but Tennessee had to fight hard on Saturday against a pesky Vanderbilt team. The six-win Commodores were always going to give Tennessee their best shot, but the question was going to come down to this — could they bring a four-quarter fight to the Volunteers?
The answer turned out to be a no.
Despite coming out and punching Tennessee in the face with a two quick scores, the tides slowly began to turn. Vanderbilt was gashing Tennessee with their option-run game early on, stringing together first downs to keep the clock moving. But somewhere in that second quarter, things shifted in a big way.
Tennessee’s offense picked up with pace with big pass plays, putting the pressure back on the ‘Dores offensively. And that’s where Tennessee’s depth started to take over. The Volunteers 12-deep defensive front took over the game, allowing just six points for the rest of the day. The pressure on Diego Pavia was relentless, with Tennessee constantly finding ways to get in the backfield.
Rodney Garner’s unit just keeps coming at you with fresh legs up front without any falloff whatsoever. That was a major key to Tennessee’s comeback win on Saturday. Once again, The Vols just wore down their opponent with depth.
That depth was important in a different way, too.
Bru McCoy was ruled out ahead of the game. Dont’e Thornton battled through injuries all day long and was eventually ruled out. Dylan Sampson was clearly hurting. James Pearce was spotted in a cast, Squirrel White left the field in a sling. There were plenty more, but you get the picture.
“I think this one probably tested it as much as any that we’ve had,” Josh Heupel said about how deep his team was forced to go on the depth chart on Saturday.
Receivers Chris Brazzell and Mike Matthews stepped up in big ways. Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod were also forced into action. DeSean Bishop handled a big chunk of carries in his return to action.
“It’s something that we were intentional, on the first half meeting after the bowl game last year, just talked about that we’ve gotta play more guys, and some of that— I’ve never really talked about it, never made an excuse for it,” Heupel said of building depth. “But when we got here, I think our first spring, 55 scholarship players, 28 scholarship reductions that we had to take. Like, there’s a growth to what we were gonna need to do as a program and intentional in growing those young guys, giving them opportunities early, making sure that we have the depth that we have.”
Tennessee’s depth has been a weapon all season long. This team was able to wear down Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama and now Vanderbilt. That’s a pretty solid formula for a potentially frigid first round playoff matchup in three weeks.
Heupel has clearly changed up some of his in-game strategy, leaning on Dylan Sampson and a run game that can control the pace of the game. That was on full display to open the second half.
“I want to give them a ton of credit, and I think they’ve built a really nice team,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “I think their run game, it’s physical and tough, and I think they’ve done things this season where it seems as though they’re not just trying to line it up and snap it as many times as they can. They’re slowing down a little bit. They’re a little more methodical. They’re using tempo to change pace and get you on your heels.”
Tennessee now waits to hear their destination. Wherever it ends up being, you’ve got to feel pretty good about the Volunteers matching physicality and depth in a late December matchup.