KNOXVILLE-Saturday’s attendance of 104,223 at Neyland Stadium marked the largest crowd that has ever watched a game involving Mississippi State. At the end of the third quarter that crowd had diminished greatly after three Tennessee touchdowns on a total of 10 plays securing what would become a 59-21 victory over the helpless Bulldogs who have now dropped 12 consecutive SEC road contests.
The Dawgs produced one of their strongest drives of the year when they marched 79 yards on eight plays. Kevin Fant zipped a 19-yard touchdown pass to Justin Jenkins to even the score at seven in the middle of the first quarter.
Tennessee quickly answered with an 11-play drive putting them ahead 14-7 at the end of the first quarter. An MSU punt to start the second quarter helped the Vols manufacture a 9-play 80-yard touchdown drive to go ahead 21-7.
Facing a 14-point deficit the Bulldogs quickly moved down the field on their next possession, which included a 33-yard breakaway run by Jerious Norwood down to the Vols 30-yard line. But, the momentum changed on the next play when quarterback Kevin Fant was sacked and stripped of the ball. Tennessee claimed the fumble and the Dawgs never recovered.
MSU quarterback Kevin Fant completed 13 passes on 24 attempts for 125 yards. He was sacked four times and intercepted twice. Sophomore Kyle York replaced the senior late in the third quarter. Mississippi State head football coach Jackie Sherrill explained why he did not take his bruised and battered starting quarterback out earlier.
“I leave that up to Kevin,” Sherrill said. “We did think about it early, but he kept wanting to go back in.”
Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen played one of his best games of his career passing for 330 yards on 20 completions. Clausen was only sacked once and continued his streak without an interception to 124 attempts. Clausen consistently made plays on long third downs.
“Casey put the ball exactly where he had to have it,” Sherrill said. “He’s probably a lot better player than people in Tennessee have given him credit to be. For a kid not being that fast he sure has a lot of moves that will make you miss him.”
The Vols picked up where they left off after halftime. Clausen led the Volunteers to three touchdown drives of six, one and three plays to take a demanding 49-7 lead.
The one play touchdown was set-up by Tennessee’s O.J. Owens who blocked Jared Cook’s punt. The ball was recovered at the one. On the next play Jabari Davis punched into the end zone for the Vols’ sixth touchdown of the game.
Tennessee raked up a total of 535 yards while the Dawgs only produced 288 yards of total offense.
MSU’s special teams play was the most impressive of the season. Nick Turner racked-up 344 all-purpose yards including 163 on kick-off returns and 103 yards on punt returns.
“We worked hard this week before and after practice on the wall,” Turner said. “I used my vision and made plays. On all of my (returns) I try to think I can break all of them.”
The Dawgs showed some rushing success in the first quarter, but Sherrill said when you get behind you have to look to the passing game, even though the Bulldogs rushed and threw 32 times each for the game.
“We did a good job of running the football and doing some things early,” Sherrill said. “All the sudden when you get behind, like we did, then you have to change the game plan and start throwing.”
Jerious Norwood led the ground attack with 51 yards on 10 carries. For UT Jabari Davis carried nine times for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
The Mississippi State defensive secondary gives up an average of 280 yards a game ranking them 109th in the nation. After giving up 346 passing yards to the Volunteers the Dawgs will drop even lower. Sherrill commented on the generous coverage.
“We didn’t play well in the secondary,” a frustrated Sherrill said. “We haven’t played well in the secondary all year.”
To make the score look reasonable, the Dawgs scored two touchdowns inside the last three minutes of the game.
“I hate they got those two late scores against our second- and third-string defenses,” UT head coach Philip Fulmer said.