Tennessee had a fast start on Saturday, but things went downhill from there.
The Volunteers scored on the first play from scrimmage, but Georgia stormed to a 38-10 victory over the Vols inside a soldout Neyland Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, Tennessee falls to 7-4 on the year and will host Vanderbilt to close out the regular season next Saturday in Neyland Stadium.
Jaylen Wright had a house call for the Vols on the first play from scrimmage as he took a handoff and raced 75 yards for a score.
“I knew it was the first call about two days ago,” Wright said. “I just trust my line and thank God. Having it like that, trusting my linemen, hitting the seam. The thing was just not to get caught.”
From there, the Tennessee offensive had tough sledding.
“They didn’t do anything different than what we prepared for,” Tennessee Quarterback Joe Milton III said. “Two-man, four-star, cover one, you saw it happen on the first cover one we hit it through the middle so they got out of that. Other than that, we just have to execute as an offense. We have to keep going. When the momentum is that high in your stadium, you just have to keep going and keep rolling. You have to swing no matter what.”
Milton was 17-of-30 for 147 yards passing, while Wright finished the game with 90 yards on nine carries.
Jabari Small had 25 yards on six carries.
Squirrel White was the leading receiver for the Vols as he had five catches for 44 yards, while Chas Nimrod had 44 yards on seven catches.
“A lot of it was in the passing game,” Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said when asked what Georgia’s defense was doing to cause issues for the Vols. “At the end of the day, I said going into it, there’s going to be one-on-one situations. They made plays in those one-on-one situations. That can be protection, that can be giving the quarterback time, that can be making plays out on the perimeter. At the end of the day, we didn’t do those things. Those plays, those conversions, give you the ability to go to the next play. They were ready to do that, and we weren’t.”
Carson Beck was 24-of-30 for 298 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs, while Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint finished with seven catches for 91 yards.
After Tennessee’s opening score, the Bulldogs added a 42-yard field goal from Peyton Woodright, and Dillon Bell threw a halfback pass to Rosemy-Jacksaint to give UGA a 10-7 lead after a quarter of play.
Georgia scored 14 points in the second and 14 more in the third to leave no doubt.
Charles Campbell added a 37-yard field goal right before half as Tennessee trailed 24-10 at the half.
