Tennessee falls flat, gets blown out by Vandy in regular season finale 45-24

Well…that was pathetic. The Vols ended their regular season with a whimper, getting controlled by the Vanderbilt Commodores 45-24 to end the regular season 8-4 (4-4).

Joey Aguilar was 29/44 passing for 299 yards and one touchdown. DeSean Bishop led the ground attack with 20 carries for 97 yards and 2 scores. Chris Brazzell II led all pass catchers with 6 grabs for 91 yards and a score.

I mean……I don’t have it in me today to recap every dirty little detail of the game today. It was super ugly, and I’m sure most of you saw it.

But in the first half, Tennessee was competitive. They held leads of 7-0 and 21-14. In fact, they really should have had the lead going into the locker room. A stupid roughing the passer call on Jalen McMurray extended a last-second drive for Vandy before the halftime whistle, and Diego Pavia made the Vols pay with a 6-yard touchdown pass on the next play to tie the game up at the half.

And, my goodness, the second half was a spectacular failure for the Vols on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Tennessee managed 3 points the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt scored on all four of their second half drives (three touchdowns, one field goal) before the final drive that ran the clock out.

Tim Banks’ defense was flat out abysmal. Vandy totaled 582 yards. FIVE. HUNDRED. EIGHTY-TWO. Pavia threw for 268 yards, and the Dores ran for 314 more. Pavia, who ran 20 times for 165 yards and a touchdown, likely locked up a Heisman Trophy finalist spot as well on the Neyland Stadium surface. After a shaky defensive performance from his group for much of the season, this terrible showing is the true cherry on top of a brown sundae that Tennessee fans will have to eat going into the offseason.

We’ll see what Heupel says after the game and what middling bowl the Vols get selected for, but man……..gotta say I don’t know about where things go from here – at least when it comes to Banks. And Heupel has some things to answer for himself about this as well.

Unacceptable.