Vols rebound with 55-10 rout of WCU

UT's Josh Malone carries as Western Carolina'sTrey Morgan approaches Saturday, September 19, 2015 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
UT's Josh Malone carries as Western Carolina'sTrey Morgan approaches Saturday, September 19, 2015 at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.

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Wiedmer: Neyland crowd deserves game ball for rout of WCU Vols' Jones still has plenty of fans despite OU loss Vols rebound with 55-10 rout of WCU McNeil makes surprising return for Vols FCS trend continues for Tennessee

KNOXVILLE - Tennessee enjoyed an easy outing in a comfortable home win.

The Volunteers better enjoy it while they can. Another breather like this one isn't coming for a while.

Tennessee showed no signs of a hangover from its disheartening double-overtime loss to Oklahoma last week and handled its business against Western Carolina in a 55-10 win against the Football Championship Subdivision Catamounts in front of another packed house at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.

"It was a big game for us," Tennessee coach Butch Jones said, "to see how we would respond."

Up next for Tennessee (2-1) is its first true road game of the season and its SEC opener at Florida.

The Gators, under first-year coach Jim McElwain, have won the last 10 meetings with the Vols, who haven't won at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2003.

"I was 10," fifth-year senior left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. "I have no idea what I was doing."

"I know a lot of the guys on the team, they take that (Oklahoma) loss personally, and they want to work harder, because it's very upsetting losing that game. It really makes you want to drive even more to be better and make it to where we don't lose another game like that."

Most of Tennessee's key players got an abbreviated workload Saturday night, as the Vols ran out to a 17-0 lead and erupted for 31 points in the second quarter to turn the game into a rout.

Tennessee scored twice on special teams, turned three turnovers from its Southern Conference visitors into 21 points and used the game to work on some of the kinks in the passing game.

The Vols, who managed just 125 passing yards against a Oklahoma defense that Saturday let Tulsa quarterback throw for 427 yards, called for 22 passes on their opening 39 plays.

Quarterback Josh Dobbs threw touchdown passes to freshman receiver Preston Williams and running back Jalen Hurd, who added a scoring run.

Evan Berry provided the highlight play of the night by breaking free from a tackler on his 88-yard kick-return touchdown with his older brother Eric, the former Vols star now with the Kansas City Chiefs, in attendance.

"It was obviously amazing," the sophomore said. "He doesn't come to many games, and he got the opportunity to come because he had a Thursday night game. I give my best every game, but knowing that he was coming, I just tried to make something happen, and it happened. It was a great feeling.

"He was obviously exciting, but he talked a little trash. He said he would've caught me. I denied it, but he was obviously excited."

Williams hauled in a second touchdown pass from backup Quinten Dormady in the second half.

"You guys saw it tonight: He comes in and he makes plays when the ball's thrown in the air," Dobbs said. "He did a great job of adjusting to balls and making big plays. Obviously he had the two touchdowns, which was huge, and I think we did a great job of spreading the ball around.

"Nine different receivers had catches tonight, which is big."

Tennessee played an FCS opponent for the sixth straight season and has won those games by a combined score of 288-49. The easy nights appear to be over as the Vols embark on three-week stretch that will determine the direction of the year.

After next week's trip to Florida, Tennessee hosts once-ranked Arkansas and division favorite Georgia prior to its only open date of the season.

"It's going to be a grind," Jones said. "Are we going to be tested? Absolutely. And every game has the ability to go down to the final play of the game. We have to make sure that we have great weeks of preparation.

"It's much different (in my third year). We expect to win. Now you have to earn victory every time you go out there."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com

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