Appalachian State vs Tennessee: Highlights, score and recap

Tennessee survived a thrilling upset scare at Neyland Stadium against Appalachian State on Thursday, needing overtime to get the win.

Appalachian State vs Tennessee on paper looked like it should have been a walk in the park for the No. 9 ranked Volunteers on paper. As the adage goes, though, games aren’t played on paper. The Mountaineers from Boone more than proved that on Thursday night inside Neyland Stadium. From the first quarter on, Appalachian State wasn’t scared and came to give Tennessee everything they could handle and more.

The Mountaineers received the opening kickoff, but couldn’t get anything going right away. However, that quickly changed after they punted it away. The Vols muffed the punt return and it was recovered by App State. Subsequently, Taylor Lamb and Marcus Cox knew just what to do with a short field. They confidently tore through a tired defense and found their way into the end zone for a touchdown.

From there, Tennessee couldn’t muster a full response. Joshua Dobbs led essentially half of a drive before making some bad throws that killed it. That led to a field goal for the Volunteers to pull within four points. Even still, the momentum stayed with App State. After a targeting call on Tennessee’s lead tackler from last year, Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Cox then struck again with a fantastic catch and run for the score. Unfortunately, they missed the extra point. Still, they held on to go into halftime up 13-3.

Tennessee had far more answers in the second half, though, they put together a drive for a field goal. More importantly, they found answers on defense for App State. After a 67-yard bomb from Dobbs, they tied the game up. Though both teams had opportunities to drive to win, a missed Appalachian State field goal and empty drives forced overtime.

The ball went to the Vols first in the extra period and they looked like they might get stopped. However, Dobbs saved them with a big first down run. Things then got crazier when Dobbs tried to cross the goal line, fumbled, but then saw the ball recovered for a touchdown by Jalen Hurd to go up 20-13.

App State then got the football with what felt like zero momentum. After an incomplete pass and two runs that amassed only five yards, they were left with fourth-and-five to stay alive. They went for it all, throwing a jump-ball into the end zone. However, the play was broken up and the ball fell to the turf. Tennessee survived in a game where they were certainly pushed to their limits.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/TheeChaunathon/status/771509574285291524

https://twitter.com/JamieShaw5/status/771524355142586368

Next Game

Off of this fantastic effort, Appalachian State will be at home next week to play Old Dominion. Tennessee will play inside Bristol Motor Speedway next week, taking on Virginia Tech.