It wasn’t anything in particular besides a win for the Tennessee football team on Saturday.
The Vols overcame a lackluster offensive performance to take a 14-3 Homecoming win over Charlotte on Saturday inside Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee improves to 4-5 on the year with three SEC games on deck to close out the season.
“I was really proud of the way our guys found a way to get a win,” head coach Jeremy Pruitt said. “At the end of the day, that’s what you’re trying to do. I thought defensively we limited some explosive plays, and we kind of made them earn it, so that helped us.”
In the early going, it looked like Tennessee might cruise to the win.
Marquez Callaway took a punt back 82 yards for a touchdown midway through the first quarter to give the Vols an early 7-0 lead. Tennessee pushed the lead to 14-0 in the first quarter’s final minute as Jarrett Guarantano hit Josh Palmer in the corner of the endzone for a 16-yard touchdown.
Neither team was able to get anything going in the second quarter until the 49ers added a field goal in the final minute of the half.
Defense reigned in the second half as neither team recorded over 100 yards of offense. Tennessee secured the win with a Bryce Thompson interception in the final minute of the game.
Guarantano went 16-of-21 for 172 yards in a strong showing. Palmer had 71 receiving yards, while Dominick Wood-Anderson had 53 receiving yards.
On the ground, Tennessee was held to just 20 yards after entering the final drive in negative yardage.
Defensively, Kyle Phillips made his presence felt as he had a pair of tackles for loss as well as a pair of pass breakups.
The Vols now turn their attention to a three-game stretch of SEC action as Kentucky will pay a visit to Neyland Stadium next Saturday. UT needs to win 2 of the final 3 to qualify for a bowl game.
