Thanks to everyone who played the Guessing Game this week. The play-by-play is below.
Round 1
Q: At what point does Keller Chryst take his first snap at QB? (5-15 points)
A: Second quarter 10 points
Randy Holtzclaw’s bolt is in effect from the last round last week, so everybody gets half points except for him. That means that six players get this right and get 5 points for it, but Randy gets 10.
Mushrooms: Jayyyy and Will Shelton
Bananas: Harley and Raven17
Blue shells and bolts: No blue shells or bolts
Top 10 after Rounds 1:
chris weatherly
Sam Hensley
Randy Holtzclaw
Mariettavol
MitchellK
Dave S
Jdsimp
BallerVawl
Jim Cornwell
jfarrar90
Round 2
Q: Does Tennessee score more than 50 points? (10 points)
A: Yes 10 points
Five players get this right.
Mushrooms: Corndawg and RockyTop5
Bananas: chris weatherly and JWheel101
Blue shells and bolts: No blue shells or bolts
Top 10 after Round 2:
Randy Holtzclaw
MitchellK
Corndawg
Sam Hensley
Brunovol
cscott95
chris weatherly
Mariettavol
Dave S
Jdsimp
Round 3
Q: How many points does ETSU score? (5-15 points)
A: 0-3 (10 points)
Only three players get 10 points for getting this right, including the current leader, Randy Holtzclaw.
Mushrooms: Harley, who’s in last place due to some terrible luck, gets both mushrooms. Woo.
Bananas: Rockytopinky and Simpson_vols
Blue shells and bolts: There’s both a blue shell and a bolt. The bolt belongs to JWheel101.
Congratulations to Dmorton, who finished first in the Gameday on Rocky Top Pick ‘Em contest this week with a 16-4 record and 170 confidence points. He or she gets a Gameday on Rocky Top t-shirt from our custom tee store, Web Community Tees. Dmorton, watch for a message from me about how to claim your prize.
The Vols did what they had to do this weekend against an outmanned ETSU Buccaneers team, and you have to give them credit for taking care of business. To be sure, there are still several obvious issues and many unanswered questions, but much of the new data this week was positive and increased hope for the future to a degree.
Meanwhile, former Vols opponent West Virginia blew out Youngstown State, which is also a positive. It’s not much more so than what they were expected to do, though, so while it’s a net positive, it’s not much of one.
As far as future opponents go, UTEP confirmed its tune-up status, and Florida’s loss to Kentucky made it look vulnerable to decent competition. The Gamecocks proved that they’re not yet an elite SEC team, yet we still don’t know how much of a gap there is between them and the rest of the SEC East. The Kentucky Wildcats must be taken seriously, and everybody else pretty much did what you expected of them.
On balance, it wouldn’t be accurate to call it a rosy picture for the Vols moving forward into the 2018 season, but it is indeed better than it seemed to be after Week 1.
And with that, my new expected win total after Week 2 is 5.45. Use the form below to calculate yours and post it in the comments below the post.
Explanations are below, but here’s the updated table of my expectations for the season:
Rucker: Georgia, but then what in SEC East?, via 247Sports. There’s a really funny line in this about Dan Mullen being a quarterback whisperer, but working with deaf quarterbacks.
The Tennessee Volunteers finally found their stride after a second consecutive game delayed by lightning and rolled to a 59-3 rout of the ETSU Buccaneers Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.
The game got off to an ominous start for the offense, not unlike the way the team started against West Virginia last week. Against an outmanned Bucs team, the offense was held to a field goal on its first possession and then had to punt on its next two.
On the other side of the ball, though, the defense looked stout right out of the gate, giving up only 28 yards on four possessions before Vols defensive back Marquill Osborne blocked a punt, picked it up, and returned it for a touchdown.
When the game was paused for lightning with Tennessee up 10-0 early in the second quarter, it looked like the Vols would probably beat ETSU but come away not feeling much better about its offense.
But a different team returned to the field 45 minutes later and scored 28 points from the 9:27 mark of the second quarter to the 3:00 mark. More than the points, it looked like the team actually earned them.
The first drive after the unanticipated break was sparked by a 51-yard pass to Marquez Callaway and capped by hard-charging freshman running back Jeremy Banks. When the Vols’ Bryce Thompson intercepted ETSU on its first play of the next drive and returned it to the 3-yard line, Jeremy Pruitt called on Banks again, and he delivered in one try for a 24-0 Vols lead.
The Bucs offense managed two plays on its next possession before the quarterback threw another interception, this one to Vols linebacker Darrin Kirkland Jr. Kirkland returned it for a touchdown and a 31-0 lead.
Keller Chryst came in at quarterback for Tennessee at that point, and the points kept coming. Before it was all said and done, Osborne, Banks, Kirkland, Josh Palmer, Jordan Murphy, and Madre London all had Tennessee touchdowns.
Jarrett Guarantano was 8-13 for 154 yards, and Keller Chryst was 3-3 for 70 yards and a touchdown.
The three main running backs all had solid days. Tim Jordan led the way with 65 yards on 15 carries, but Banks had 13 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns, and London had 8 carries for 47 yards and two touchdowns.
Three Vols receivers had over 50 yards. Marquez Callaway had 78, Murphy 75, and Josh Palmer 51.
The beginning of the game made you feel like it was going to be an extremely long season. If the offense couldn’t move the ball against ETSU, what in the world was it going to do against the SEC slate? But after the break, the team found its groove, and although it was an expected result against an over-matched opponent, Tennessee didn’t look much different than Florida did against Charleston Southern last weekend.
Tennessee gets another tuneup against UTEP next week before the all-important showdown with Florida on September 22.
It’s Gameday on Rocky Top, with the Tennessee Vols hosting the ETSU Bucs at Neyland Stadium this afternoon at 4:00.
Here’s the Gameday Gameplan for Vols fans. Where and when to find the Vols game on TV, what other games to watch, and what to listen to and read as you wait for kickoff.
When is the Vols game, and what TV channel is it on?
Here are the particulars for today’s Tennessee game:
While you’re waiting for the games to begin, make sure that you submit your answers to the GRT Guessing Game questions and update your picks for the GRT Pick ‘Em.
GRT game-week podcasts
And if you’re driving around this morning to get stuff done before kickoff, have a listen to this week’s podcastby subscribing via iTunes or Google:
Pre-game prep
And to catch up on on your pre-game reading, have a look at our game preview posts from earlier this week:
Congratulations to Will, who, for the first time I can recall in nearly a decade of writing with him, actually finished first in the Gameday on Rocky Top Pick ‘Em contest. High-five. See kids? Grit, determination, and perseverance eventually pay off.
Because he’s worked for it, I’m sending him a Gameday on Rocky Top t-shirt from our custom tee store, Web Community Tees, even though he has the keys to the place and even though he already has a Gameday on Rocky Top t-shirt. Hey, accomplishments must be rewarded.
I’m also giving vols95 a t-shirt, though, as he or she is the person who finished first this week among non-authors. Watch for how to get your tee.
And finally, I’m giving myself a giant bowl of Blue Bell Cookies and Cream for producing the absolute worst result in ten years. I finished with one point more than the people who didn’t play. Woo.
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