‘I’ve never seen that…I thought it was a misprint’ – Former Vols coach couldn’t believe what he saw in Tennessee’s win over Georgia Tech
There was quite the anomaly in the fourth quarter of the Tennessee Volunteers’ win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
A former Vols coach saw something in Tennessee’s 45-24 win over Georgia Tech that he doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.
Former Tennessee assistant coach Doug Matthews pointed out on his Sunday show on 104.5 The Zone that he noticed something odd about the Vols’ first drive in the fourth quarter.
Tennessee possessed the ball for 7:04 and moved the ball only 12 yards on a drive that ended in a punt.
“I hadn’t ever seen this in a ball game,” said Matthews. “… In the fourth quarter, Tennessee had a drive — I want you to listen to these stats — they had the ball for 11 plays. They ran 7:04 off the clock, and had a total of 12 yards. When they punted the ball, they had moved the ball 12 yards. I thought that was a misprint. I went back and looked at the play-by-play and that’s exactly what happened.”
How did Tennessee run 7:04 off the clock and gain just 12 yards?
This is probably one of the wildest stats you’ll see during the Josh Heupel era.
For starters, the Vols usually don’t have drives that last that long under Heupel (though they had two drives that were around seven minutes against Georgia Tech — which means they shortened the game by an entire quarter with those two drives).
Secondly, gaining just 12 yards while running seven minutes off the clock seems nearly impossible.
The reason it happened, however, is because of penalties. Running back DeSean Bishop rushed for 39 yards on the second play of the drive, but a holding penalty wiped out the gain and moved the line of scrimmage back eight yards (and the clock restarted after the penalty, which allowed some time to run off).
There was also a 15-yard penalty when Vols wide receiver Travis Smith Jr got his hand caught in a defensive back’s facemask. Then there was another 15-yard penalty when Tennessee wide receiver Mike Matthews was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (which ESPN never showed the replay of).
So a combination of Tennessee being in no rush to snap the ball and an excessive amount of penalties led to led to a drive unlike anything most of us have ever seen before.
