Tennessee Vols keep playing, score incredible win over Georgia Tech

Briona Posse Orca Michael Patrick Erika Whitney USA today Network Tennessee you got my back Butch Jones screamed to his team three times in a row in the Tennessee locker room a moment captured on national TV before the Vols took the field against Georgia Tech dot considering the history and the situation for Jones entering his fifth season that may have come across to some as a man screaming in vain for help and he and his team certainly had their moments of helplessness Monday night in the opulence of mercedes-benz stadium dot but the point Jones was making was that everyone in that room had to have the back of everyone else which is a very Jones esque message of inspiration and as good an explanation as any for how the Vols walked out of the home of the Atlanta Falcons with a win maybe this program has great character and Grant Jones offered when asked about the struggles that required all that character and grant and this was another UT performance that can be viewed however you want to view it dot a mess of offensive dysfunction and missed tackles or a masterpiece of unyielding character and clutch plays when they were needed most it was both it was ultimately a win so let's talk character dot this team was done getting steamrolled on defense and meeting three quarters to find anything resembling in offense trailing 21 to 7 and then 28 to 14 in the fourth quarter searching for answers not finding any dot and then somehow at 142 to 41 and double overtime when the defense that gave up nearly 700 yards stopped Georgia Tech on the decisive play the Yellow Jackets did not have to go 4-2 but did anyway seeking the win after scoring a touchdown to get within a point and the Vols played the perfect assignment football that Jones and second-year defensive coordinator Bob Shoop have been talking about for months Georgia Tech quarterback taequan Marshall who ran for 249 yards and a school record five touchdowns in his starting debut took the snap and went option right but UT forced him to keep and offensive and Daryl Taylor smacked him Marshalls desperation flip felt incomplete Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said his team messed up play from the start and that it should have been a walk into the end zone he could also lament a late fumble to open the door and a shanked 37-yard field goal to win as time expired in regulation I don't think I've ever been in game where you run 95 plays and have 655 yards and loose he said doc but the Vols made plays to win - and for that they earned the celebration they enjoyed when it was over after a half second to realize they had won Tennessee players streamed onto the field as nearly 40,000 UT fans roared their approval dot there was so much to not like about UTSA first performance of 2017 but there was everything to like about how everyone in orange hung around and kept at it dot Quinten dormady in his first start at quarterback victim of several early drops in his own jitters made big throws in the fourth quarter to turn things around sophomore marques galloway announced himself as a playmaker with jim jennings injured and out catching a perfect fade from dormady for one score then turning a short pass into a 50-yard sprint for the endzone John Kelly quiet early but unstoppable late tied the game with a fourth quarter Rumble and then again with an overtime plunge his fourth touchdown was the game-winner in the second extra session with the Yellow Jackets gassed and overwhelmed dot the Tennessee defense well what can you say it probably won't recover statistically this season from the 535 rushing yards it gave up to Johnson's flexbone triple-option offense dotted was worn down quickly up front and mistake ridden in the secondary letting a receiver run free for what should have been the winning touchdown at the end of regulation dot but if you see three linebackers who play harder this season than Daniel Bijlee Colton jumper and Marquez Galloway DVR'd and don't delete it bitterly and jumper were filling in for injured starters Darrin Kirkland jr. and Austin Smith and they kept charging even when it didn't seem to matter dot and win race on gout and force the late fumble with Georgia Tech slicing through the vowels late to put the game away recovered by Micah Abernathy Tennessee had a chance the Vols could put that rather than the entire game film into their little turn over trashcan on the sidelines dot ultimately you really can't take anything from this game defensively other than the fact that no athletic director should ever ever schedule Georgia Tech or any other team with this offense the blame for that goes to former Tennessee add Dave Hart and rest assured he would have been on a long list of culprits had this game not flipped dot Jones would have topped the list and Knoxville would have showed him this week the true meaning of a society of negativity there are three tiers of Tennessee fans right now the butch must go