STARKVILLE, Miss — Tennessee football got the ball back at its own 26-yard line with three timeouts and 1:16 to play in regulation in its 41-34 overtime win at Mississippi State Saturday evening. Yet Tennessee ran out of time with two timeouts in its pocket outside of field goal range. A seemingly impossible scenario.
The Vols went slow to begin the drive, running for three yards on first down and not calling a timeout. That, of itself, is not an odd occurrence. Tennessee did not want to quickly go three-and-out and give the ball to Mississippi State with a chance to win in regulation— it was a mistake the Bulldogs had just made.
But Tennessee ran an extended amount of time off the clock. Not snapping the ball until there was 38 seconds remaining. The Vols hit a 13-yard pass to Miles Kitselman and then Joey Aguilar scrambled for nine yards before Tennessee took its first timeout.
The Vols had it second-and-one at the Mississippi State 49-yard line and 24 seconds to play. Aguilar was unable to connect with Braylon Staley on a deep ball and Tennessee had it third-and-one with 18 seconds to play. That’s when things got dicey.
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DeSean Bishop ran for five yards to the Mississippi State 44-yard line and was tackled with 13 seconds left. But Tennessee didn’t take a timeout, instead running a second play.
There was nothing open down the field and Aguilar scrambled before throwing the ball away leaving just four seconds on the clock.
“We actually had the second play ready to go,” Heupel said. “With the time on the clock, whether it was right or wrong with the two timeouts. Not being able to get it out quick and burn it. We had the second play ready to go. That is why I didn’t use it there with the time that it ended up, probably would have been right. Joey scrambles around on the play and burns the clock.”
Tennessee threw an incompletion on a Hail Mary and then the game went to overtime. The Vols ran just seven plays in 1:23 and took two timeouts with them to end regulation.
The Vols found a way to win in overtime, scoring on a 25-yard touchdown run to begin the overtime period before winning on a goal line stand to end the game.
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