No. 15 Tennessee wraps up non-conference slate with rout of Kennesaw State

KNOXVILLE — Tennessee was able to keep the hooting and hollering by the Kennesaw State Owls to a minimum on Saturday night. The No. 15 Vols took care of business in their last non-conference game of the season by way of a 42-9 final over the Owls. "Ultimately, good win," Vols head coach Josh Heupel said. "Offensively, just got to be better in the red zone. Thought there were some real positives, too. Defensively, kept them out of the end zone." Tennessee's (3-0) offense came out of the gates humming, going on a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives in the first quarter. The first march took eight plays and ate up 3:28 of clock. The biggest chunk came on the first play from scrimmage, when Faizon Brandon hit Braylon Staley for a 35-yard completion. The Vols continued to churn their way deep into Owls' (1-2) territory until DeSean Bishop took a three-yard plunge into the checkerboards. On UT's second possession, they needed nine plays in 3:19. A 13-yard touchdown pass from Brandon to Staley capped off the scoring drive. Tennessee then was successful on a two-point try for the first time this season. Sandwiched between was a long scoring drive for Kennesaw State, who ate up 7:41 en route to a 35-yard field goal by Daniel Kinney. The Owls picked up four first downs, but a holding penalty put them behind the sticks in the red zone and they had to settle for a kick from the Knoxville native. In the second, the Vols moved the ball well at times to the tune of 119 total yards of offense in the quarter. However, they went 0-of-4 on third downs in the stanza, which led to a pair of Cooper Ranvier field goals. The second of the pair came as points off turnovers. Tennessee had lost a fumble deep into Kennesaw State territory. Five plays later, the Owls put the ball on the ground and Tyree Weathersby fell on it to set up the scoring opportunity before halftime. After UT led 21-3 out of the break, the Vols defense forced a three-and-out and then went on a four-play scoring drive. Daune Morris did the bulk of the work, going for 45 yards on the drive, including a 42-yard rushing touchdown. Morris, a sophomore, finished his night with 14 carries and 116 yards. The performance was a large one with Bishop getting banged up in the second quarter, who came back briefly in the second half. "You guys always get caught up in who the starter is," Heupel said. "Maybe not you guys, but people do. At the end of the day, you're going to need everybody inside of that room. Daune ran extremely well tonight. Hunter Barnes went in there, ran well. DeSean ran really well. Just didn't think it was smart to him back in at that point in the game as we've got a conference stretch." Later in the quarter, Brandon scrambled on 2nd-and-goal for a five-yard touchdown run to cap off a 10-play, 71-yard drive to put the Vols up 35-3. In the fourth, Tennessee answered another Owls field goal with a Barnes three-yard rushing touchdown. The Vols totaled 446 yards of offense for the night. Brandon went 18-of-26 through the air for 178 yards with a touchdown. He also had 11 carries for 47 yards with his legs. "There's a way that they wanted him to play, defensively," Heupel said. "I thought Faizon did a good job working windows and taking what was there." Kennesaw State quarterback Rickie Collins went 22-of-34 passing for 189 yards and added 36 rushing yards on 14 attempts. His top target for the evening was Zion Booker, who hauled in 10 passes for 78 yards. For the Vols defense, Arion Carter led the way in tackles with eight, adding a sack and two tackles for loss. Up Next Tennessee welcomes Texas into Neyland Stadium next Saturday to start SEC play. Kennesaw State will visit Arkansas State next week. No. 15 TENNESSEE 42, KENNESAW STATE 9 KSU 3 0 0 6 — 9 TENN 15 6 14 7 — 42 First Quarter TENN — DeSean Bishop 3-rush (Cooper Ranvier kick), 11:32 KSU — Daniel Kinney 35-field goal, 3:51 TENN — Braylon Staley 13-pass from Faizon Brandon (Luca Wolf rush), 0:26 Second Quarter TENN — Ranvier 40-field goal, 10:34 TENN — Ranvier 43-field goal, 0:23 Third Quarter TENN — Daune Morris 42-rush (Ranvier kick), 11:16 TENN — Brandon 5-rush (Ranvier kick), 4:25 Fourth Quarter KSU — Kinney 35-field goal, 12:49 TENN — Hunter Barnes 3-rush (Ranvier kick), 8:50 KSU — Kinney 20-field goal, 2:45