Tennessee Football: Immediate Reaction to Vols upset win over Auburn

The Tennessee football team picked up a huge win on Saturday, beating No. 21 ranked Auburn. Here is an immediate reaction to their huge win!

Jeremy Pruitt picked up his first signature win on Saturday as the Tennessee Volunteers upset the Auburn Tigers, 30-24.

This game was full of firsts for the Volunteers. This was the first time the Volunteers had beat an SEC opponent since Nov. 19, 2016, which was when Josh Dobbs led Tennessee to a 63-37 win over Missouri. It was also the first time the Volunteers captured a win against an SEC West opponent since Nov. 13, 2010, when Tyler Bray led Tennessee to a 52-14 blowout win against Ole Miss.

Jarrett Guarantano had a career day for the Volunteers, while the defense was able to force three huge turnovers to put the Volunteers in a spot to win the ballgame.

Check out the immediate reactions from the Volunteers upset win below.

Immediate Reactions

Jarrett Guarantano balled out for the Volunteers

There is no doubt about this one. Guarantano put the Volunteers in a position to be successful all game long. Many fans questioned his decision making over the last few games, but he proved those fans wrong today, leading his team to an upset win over a ranked team.

Guarantano finished the day 21-32 passing for a career-high 328 yards and two touchdowns. He looked good pretty much all day long, completing pass after pass downfield. Volunteers receivers helped Guarantano out as well, coming down with clutch catches, including this one by Jauan Jennings to give the Volunteers the lead.

It was great to see Guarantano ball out today, considering Tennessee couldn’t figure out the run at all. Some of the early first down runs though were able to set up downfield passes all game long. One stat that really sticks out to me for Guarantano is his success on third down. He came up clutch all game long, completing shots to Volunteer receivers.

That stat above is a huge reason Tennessee was able to pull off the upset and get Pruitt his first signature win.

Volunteers finally forced some turnovers

Tennessee’s defense seemed to struggle early on with Auburn’s fast-paced offense, but they were able to settle in after they had a few stops. The Volunteers defense had struggled in the past few weeks on forcing turnovers, but that wasn’t the case in this game, as they forced three turnovers, including a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

Tennessee was able to dial up blitzes and force some pressure on Jarrett Stidham and the Auburn offense. Stidham had Heisman hopes heading into the year, after a successful season last year but has struggled so far this year and struggled today against the Volunteers.

Tennessee came up with two huge interceptions today, including one from true freshman Bryce Thompson and another from Jonathan Kongbo on a trick play from Auburn.

The defense was able to get pressure on Stidham throughout the game, making him make a few dumb decisions over the course of the game. They were able to dial up a blitz and force the third turnover by Stidham, as the ball was fumbled around and ultimately picked up by Alontae Taylor and taken into the end zone.

Volunteer fans had been begging the defense to force turnovers and they did just that, which ended up giving Tennessee a chance to win.

Volunteers end bye-week woes

During the Butch Jones era, the Tennessee Volunteers struggled coming out of the bye week. Just take a look at the last two years when they looked lackluster coming out of the bye week against South Carolina. That wasn’t the case this week though, as Pruitt and staff had an extra week to prepare for a struggling Auburn team.

Despite a slow start defensively and a few questionable calls offensively, the Volunteers looked good on Saturday. Even if the Volunteers ended up losing, I still would’ve said that they were the better team out there because that was the case. The Volunteers had swagger and confidence all day long and that was evident. They weren’t afraid to take shots at all.

Tennessee will have a very tough test next Saturday against Alabama, but Pruitt and his players should enjoy this victory. It was a great win by a team that looks to get better each week.