University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Notes: Vols 17, UMass 13
September 23, 2017 | Football
Tennessee Tidbits
- Tennessee's all-time record is 832-376-53. UT ranks ninth all-time in program wins.
- The UT defense logged seven sacks against UMass, marking the Vols' most since posting seven against Vanderbilt on Nov. 22, 2008.
- Junior running back John Kelly finished with 25 carries for 101 yards and one touchdown. He now has five (today would be fifth) 100-yard rushing performances in his career, including two this season.
- Sophomore receiver Brandon Johnson finished with career highs of seven receptions for 123 yards. His previous career bests were five catches for 64 yards against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 5, 2016.
- Tennessee is now 16-5 over its last 21 games
- Kickoff was at 12:01 p.m. ET.
- Attendance: 95,324
Vol Captains/Coin Toss
- The Tennessee team captains for Saturday's game against UMass are junior running back John Kelly, redshirt senior defensive lineman Kendal Vickers, redshirt junior defensive back Rashaan Gaulden and senior tight end Jakob Johnson.
- Tennessee won the coin toss and elected to receive in the first half.
- UT is 4-1 on coin tosses this season (3-1 on pregame coin tosses and 1-0 in overtime).
- In 2016, Tennessee won six out of 15 coin tosses, including six out of 13 pregame. The Vols did not win either of their two coin tosses in overtime. UT was 3-3 in 2016 when winning the pregame coin toss.
Tennessee-UMass Notes
- Saturday's game marked the first-ever meeting between Tennessee and UMass.
- Tennessee is now 9-6-1 all-time against FBS Independent teams. The Vols are 5-2-1 against Army and 4-4 against Notre Dame.
Misc Notes
- Senior Jakob Johnson made the first start of his career at tight end. He previously had two starts at linebacker in 2014 against Missouri and Vanderbilt.
- Redshirt senior wide receiver Josh Smith made his first start of the season and the 19th start of his career.
- Senior center Coleman Thomas made his first start of the season and the 28th of his career.
- Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Venzell Boulware made his first start of the year, starting the game at left guard. Boulware now has four career starts.
- Redshirt sophomore linebacker Quart'e Sapp made the first start of his career. He started at the weakside linebacker position.
Offensive Highlights
- FIRST HALF: Tennessee had 261 yards of offense (154 passing, 107 rushing). Quinten Dormady was 14-for-19 for 154 yards and one touchdown. John Kelly Rushed 14 times for 83 yards and one touchdown. Brandon Johnson led UT receivers with six receptions for 114 yards.
- With 4:50 remaining in the second quarter, junior quarterback Quinten Dormady hit sophomore receiver Brandon Johnson over the middle for a 66-yard pass to the UMass 12-yard line, marking Tennessee's longest offensive play of the year. The previous long was a 52-yard pass from Dormady to John Kelly against Florida last week. It was the longest pass by a UT quarterback since Joshua Dobbs' 67-yard pass to Jauan Jennings against Florida on Sept. 24, 2016.
- Junior running back John Kelly ran in a 12-yard touchdown with 4:33 remaining in the second quarter. It was Kelly's sixth rushing score of the year and the 12th of his career. With that score, UT has now logged a rushing touchdown in 32-straight games. The play capped a four-play, 80-yard drive.
- With 25 seconds remaining in the first half, Dormady connected with Tyler Byrd for an eight-yard touchdown pass to the back left corner of the end zone. The touchdown was the first of Byrd's career. The touchdown capped a nine-play, 72-yard drive.
- With 2:46 remaining in the third quarter, redshirt freshman quarterback Jarrett Guarantano entered the game. His first pass was a completion to Austin Pope for -1 yard.
Defensive Highlights
- FIRST HALF: The Vols limited UMass to 161 yards in the first half (80 rushing, 81 passing). UT posted two sacks and Quart'e Sapp and Justin Martin led the team with four tackles each.
- Early in the second quarter, Reginald Kahlil McKenzie Jr. recorded his first sack of the season when he brought down Andrew Ford for a four-yard loss on 1st-and-10 from the UMass 37. It marked McKenzie's second career sack and his first since 2015 against Missouri.
- With under seven minutes to go in the second quarter, redshirt junior defensive lineman Alexis Johnson brought down Ford for a four-yard loss, marking the first sack of his UT career.
- Junior defensive lineman Kyle Phillips recorded the longest tackle for loss of his career when his six-yard tackle on third down in the second quarter pushed the Minutmen back to the UMass 29-yard line and forced a punt.
- On UMass' opening drive of the second half, redshirt senior defensive lineman Kendal Vickers and senior linebacker Colton Jumper combined on a sack on 3rd-and-10, bringing down Ford for a three-yard loss.
- With under 10 minutes to go in the third quarter, Jumper recorded a solo sack, bringing down Ford for a four-yard loss.
- With 1:17 left in the third quarter, senior linebacker Elliott Berry sacked Ford for a three-yard loss to the UMass 27. It was the first sack of Berry's career.
- Redshirt junior Jonathan Kongbo recorded his first sack of the season midway through the fourth quarter when he brought down Ross Comis for a seven-yard loss.
Special Teams Highlights
- Tennessee's special teams forced a miss on UMass' second-quarter touchdown.
- Senior kicker Aaron Medley made a 40-yard field goal with 7:32 left in the third quarter to cap a six-play, 18-yard drive.
Daniel Dependable vs. Minutemen
- Redshirt senior punter Trevor Daniel finished the game with eight punts for 391 yards, marking his best average in four games this season (48.9 average). In the first quarter, he kicked a 56-yard punt that pinned UMass at its own 3. His next punt for 53 yards pinned the Minutemen at their own 2.
- It was Daniel's best average since a 49.0 yard per kick effort at South Carolina in 2016, improving his season average to 47.6 per attempt.
- Entering the game, Daniel ranked fourth in the SEC and eighth nationally among FBS punters with an average of 46.8 per attempt.
- Carding efforts of 56 (1Q), 53 (2Q), 55 (4Q) and 54 yards (4Q), Daniel has boomed nine punts over 50 yards this season.
- Daniel dropped four punts inside the 20 and two inside the 10 on Saturday.
- Two of those I10 efforts pinned UMass inside the five, with the Minutemen beginning possessions at the four (1Q) and another at the two (2Q).
- Daniel now has placed 12 punts inside the 20 this season and 65 for his career.
- He has boomed six punts inside the 10 in 2017 and 33 for his career.
- His punt team colleagues helped limit the Minutemen to 17 yards on three attempts.
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