Vanderbilt Loses Another Game Against Tennessee Despite Red-Hot Start
Vanderbilt knew they would have their hands full on Saturday when welcoming in Tennessee for this hotly contested rivalry game to close out the regular season.
While the Commodores have been upset-minded all year long and the Volunteers haven't played their best football in conference play, it has not been a secret that Tennessee has owned Vanderbilt during the Clark Lea era.
They were hoping it would be different this time around.
With a star quarterback at the helm and a better coaching staff in place, Vanderbilt was confident they would be able to pull off the upset and potentially shake things up when it comes to the College Football Playoff picture.
Early on, it looked like the Commodores would be able to do just that.
They had an incredible first quarter, starting with an opening kickoff returned for a touchdown and another score after Tennessee fumbled to put themselves up 14-0.
By the time the opening period ended, Vanderbilt was sitting with a 17-7 advantage.
Unfortunately, that's where the positives ended for the Commodores.
Tennessee got things rolling by scoring 29 consecutive points, forcing an interception, a turnover on downs, three punts and a safety before Vanderbilt got back into the end zone late in the fourth quarter.
It was a tough way for this game to shake out for the Commodores.
They had tons of momentum during the beginning of the game, but the talent gap that has been present between these two programs showed up once again as Tennessee was able to just dominate their in-state rivals like they have for the past five games.
Diego Pavia came into this matchup dealing with a ton of injuries.
He didn't throw the ball often, completing just 8 of his 17 passing attempts for 104 yards a touchdown and an interception. His legs were featured, though, gaining 45 yards on 11 rushes.
Sedrick Alexander was able to produce 60 yards on the ground with a touchdown in 17 attempts, but it was hard for him to get anything going consistently with just 3.5 yards per carry.
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt had a hard time stopping Tennessee's offense.
They put up 538 total yards, 281 coming on the ground led by Dylan Sampson's 178 yards, while
Nico Iamaleava went 18-of-26 for 257 and four touchdowns with one interception through the air.
Vanderbilt already qualified for a bowl game before this matchup, so they'll have another opportunity to get this poor taste out of their mouth, but the Commodores will still undoubtedly be frustrated with how this game went again.
