It wasn’t exactly pretty, but Tennessee got the job done.
The Volunteers held off a late Arkansas rally to take a 34-31 win inside Neyland Stadium on Saturday. UT improves to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC.
“Ultimately, found a way to win at the end,” Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said. “Made it close at the end, as well. Offensively, got to finish the previous drive. Defensively, got to get a stop at the end. Knew it was going to be a tough ball game.”
After trailing by a touchdown twice in the first half, Tennessee scored 24 straight points to take a 34-17 lead when Peyton Lewis scored on a three-yard run with 13:14 left to play.
The Razorbacks, however, answered with a nine-yard touchdown from Taylen Green to Rohhan Jones. After a defensive stop, Arkansas trimmed the UT lead to three points with 2:55 to play when Green found an open Kam Shanks for a touchdown.
The Volunteers, however, were able to run out the clock to secure the win.
“It’s a good win,” Heupel said. “I said it in the beginning of the week to you guys and our football team, this is a good football team. On the road at Ole Miss, a one-possession game. Obviously, Notre Dame game gets away from them in the middle of the second quarter, but I thought it would probably be a four-quarter game, and that’s how we prepared and love the competitive makeup.”
The Volunteers had 485 yards of total offense in the game. Desean Bishop had 146 yards on 14 carries with a score, while Peyton Lewis had 33 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
Joey Aguilar went 16-of-25 passing for 221 yards and a touchdown and also added five carries for 59 yards – including a 28-yard run with just under three minutes remaining in the game to help secure the win for Tennessee.
Braylon Staley had a career night as he had six catches for 109 yards.
The Tennessee defense recorded five sacks with Jordan Ross tallying 1.5. Daevin Hobbs and Tyre West each had one. Andre Turrentine had 11 tackles, while Edrees Farooq had nine tackles.
Green was 21-of-31 for Arkansas with 256 yards passing and two scores, and also added 63 yards on 17 carries.
Mike Washington had 19 carries and 135 yards and a touchdown.
Arkansas opened the game with a nine-play drive that ended as Green scored on an 11-yard run.
Tennessee promptly answered on the next drive as Bishop finished a seven-play drive with a 17-yard score.
After Arkansas added a 28-yard field goal with 20 seconds left in the quarter, Max Gilbert evened things with a 37-yard field goal with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter.
Arkansas retook the lead with 4:36 to play in the half as Washington scored on a one-yard run.
The Volunteer offense went back to work quickly as they scored five plays later as Miles Kitselman caught an Aguilar pass for an eight-yard touchdown as the teams went to the locker room tied at 17-17.
After Gilbert added a 50-yard field goal to open the second half, Lewis scored later in the quarter on a two-yard run to give the Vols a 27-17 advantage after three quarters.
“Margins are small in this league,” Heupel said. “You’re playing like talent every single week. A play here, a play there changes the way the game is played. You know, for us tonight we made it tougher than it needed to be at times. That’s not taking anything away from them. In all areas of the game, and then obviously when it’s 10 to one penalty differential, you’re changing the way the game is played too, so I guess we got to play a lot smarter.”