Tennessee had no answers in the second half of the regular season finale.
Vanderbilt outscored the Volunteers 24-3 in the second half to pull away and take a 45-24 victory inside Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.
“Extremely disappointing second half that leads to an extremely disappointing ultimate result, coaches and players both play a part in it,” Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said. “Give them some credit, but extremely disappointing in what we did in the second half.”
Vanderbilt outgained the Vols 582-382 as the Commodores were led by Diego Pavia. Pavia went 18-of-28 with 268 yards through the air to go along with 20 carries for 165 yards with a passing and rushing touchdown.
“A couple of them, he makes a good play,” Heupel said. “We can’t get off a block on the interior in a couple of the big plays. We misfit a couple of things to the boundary. So, it’s a combination of all those things that lead into him having the game he does with his feet.”
The Volunteer offense saw Joey Aguilar go 29-of-44 passing for 299 yards with a score. Chris Brazzell had six catches for 91 yards, while Ethan Davis added seven catches for 85 yards.
DeSean Bishop had 20 carries with 97 yards and two touchdowns.
The Tennessee offense, however, struggled in the second half as they was held to just three points.
“Throughout the game, I think there were some execution things we didn’t handle the small details in the scope of the structures of what they did to limit or eliminate a play,” Heupel said.
The Tennessee defense came up big early as Edrees Farooq nabbed an interception on the goal line that set up a drive that ended in a Bishop touchdown with 3:49 left in the first quarter.
The Commodores answered on the next drive as Sedrick Alexander scored on a 28-yard touchdown run in the closing minute of the first. After Vanderbilt took a 14-7 lead off a Makhilyn Young touchdown early in the second, Tennessee answered quickly as Aguilar and Brazzell scored on a 52-yard touchdown pass.
Ty Redmond stopped the next Vanderbilt drive with an interception, Bishop scored on a 35-yard touchdown run.
In the closing seconds of the half, Vanderbilt took advantage of a roughing the passer penalty on third down as Pavia found Tre Richardson for a six-yard score to tie things up at the half.
It was all Vanderbilt in the second half.
Alexander scored after a lengthy opening drive in the third quarter, and Vanderbilt added a 35-yard field goal with 2:12 left in the third to take a 31-21 lead.
Tennessee added a Max Gilbert field goal early in the fourth, and Vanderbilt added two touchdowns in the fourth to secure the win.
The Volunteers now await to find out their postseason bowl destination while preparing for next season.
“We’ll have a chance to meet with our guys and move forward as a program and revisit the season and look backwards before we look forward,” Heupel said.
