KNOXVILLE – Montana saw plenty of opportunities to be competitive against Tennessee in the form of six Volunteers fumbles. The Grizzlies just couldn’t seem to grab any of them.
Montana managed to give the bigger, faster Volunteers some trouble at the line of scrimmage, but not enough to escape a 42-16 victory by Tennessee on Saturday night.
“We should have got every one of those fumbles,” Grizzlies safety Mike McCord said. “It really didn’t bounce our way.”
The Grizzlies got their lone score in the first half when Jordan Johnson connected with Jabin Sambrano on an 80-yard pass play, burning Tennessee true freshman Justin Coleman on the route. The score cut the Vols’ lead to 28-7 with 3:49 left in the second quarter, but Montana couldn’t sustain the momentum and went three-and-out on the following drive, its last of the half.
The touchdown play was Sambrano’s only catch of the night, but the 80 yards led Montana’s receivers.
The Grizzlies pinned a punt by their own Sean Winn at the Tennessee 1 yard line, and Ben Hughes downed Tauren Poole in the end zone for a safety that cut Tennessee’s margin to 28-9 with 12:45 in the third quarter. It was as close as Montana would get as Art Evans picked off Johnson two plays later and returned the ball 37 yards for a touchdown that put the Vols up 35-9.
Johnson finished 19-of-36 for 226 yards, one touchdown and an interception. Nguyen had 67 yards rushing on nine carries and Jordan Canada scored on a 7-yard run with 6:04 left in the game.
The Grizzlies sacked Tennessee’s Tyler Bray three times for a loss of 21 yards and often found themselves in control of the line of scrimmage.
Montana was just in too deep of a hole from the first half. Tennessee held the ball nearly twice as long during the first two quarters and outgained the Grizzlies 302 yards to 140.
Tennessee lost yards on its first drive after Caleb McSurdy sacked Bray for a loss of 10 yards on third down. Montana’s Peter Nguyen fumbled the subsequent punt, and Bray connected with Da’Rick Rogers on a flea-flicker play for a 47-yard touchdown pass on the next play to put the Vols up 7-0 with 12:47 to go in the first quarter.
On third-and-7 at the Vols 19 on the following drive, Bray hit Hunter around midfield, and Hunter outran defenders the rest of the way for the 81-yard touchdown play.
Bray finished 17-of-24 for 293 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. The touchdown pass to Rogers marked his seventh consecutive game with two or more TDs, tying a record set by Peyton Manning during his senior season in 1997.
Justin Hunter grabbed six receptions for 146 yards, and Rogers had 100 yards on five catches to become the Volunteers’ first pair to each have more than 100 yards receiving in a single game since 2007. Both players had a touchdown catch.
“I was really proud of how we tackled people,” Montana coach Robin Pflugrad said. “I think Tennessee for the most part had to earn their scores. I am glad it did not get further out of hand, and I think it might have if we didn’t tackle well.”