The University of Tennessee Volunteers scored their second victory in as many weeks after routing the Georgia State Panthers in a 51-13 route. The loss was the second of the season for the Panthers whose football program is now in its third year.

“Tennessee’s execution was superb in the passing game,” said GS Coach Bill Curry. “They put us out of the game with their excellence in that regard. They put us on the run with their speed and execution.  

The stats speak for themselves. UT quarterback Tyler Bray threw for 374 yards in passing compared to 176 by GS.

Bray directed the Vols downfield on their first possession.  Rajion Neal scored to give Tennessee a lead. Following a successful kick by Michael Palardy the score stood at 7-0.

Georgia State retaliated with a drive downfield but was unable to reach the end zone. A field goal put the Panthers on the scoreboard making the score 7-3 at the end of the first quarter

Mychal Rivera scores to help UT defeat Georgia State Panthers 51-13

Bray threw a 19 yard pass to Mychal Rivera who ran in a touchdown. The extra point was kicked by Palardy making the score 14-3.

The Panthers picked up another field goal in the second quarter making the score 14-6.

Tennessee began a nine play drive covering 28 yards to score another touchdown and an extra point making the score 21-6. With 2:10 left in the half Bray passed to Justin Hunter to score. Palardy scored the extra point ending the half at 28-6.

The Vols scored 13 in the third quarter making the score 41-6. The Vols continued to rack up the yardage and scored 10 in the fourth quarter. The Panthers showed some signs of life late in the fourth scoring their only TD and extra point of the game making the final score 51-13.

Bray moved into seventh place on Tennessee’s all-time passing list and tossed four touchdown passes.  Three of those scoring strikes went to Justin Hunter, who had not scored in almost a year since injuring his knee against Florida a year ago.

The win makes the Vols 2-0 heading into their SEC opener against Florida next Saturday at Neyland Stadium.  The Gators are also 2-0.

“Most teams rarely reach their dreams, never reach their dreams,” Dooley said. “I think one of the main reasons is they overestimate an event and underestimate the process. That’s going to be our biggest challenge this next week, not overestimating the event, patting ourselves on the back and listening to everybody talk about how good we played (instead of) remembering why we had success.”

Curry attributed his team’s lackluster performance to “mistakes.”

“We had five or six errors on center quarterback. It’s unspeakable to think about.”
By Michael Williams