Tennessee’s John Kelly (4) looks for running room between two Falcon defenders. The Tennessee Volunteers hosted the Bowling Green Falcons at Nissan Stadium in Nashville September 5, 2015.Recapping Tennessee’s 59-30 win against Bowling Green in the season opener in Nashville on Saturday.
BY THE NUMBERS
399: Tennessee piled up 399 rushing yards, with both Jalen Hurd and Alvin Kamara going over the 100-yard mark. The Vols hadn’t cracked the 400-yard mark on the ground since running for 406 yards against Vanderbilt in 1994. 433: The 433 passing yards Tennessee allowed to Bowling Green on Saturday were the most the Vols allowed since Kentucky had 430 in a four-overtime game in 2007. 184: The Vols rolled up 184 rushing yards in the first half of Saturday’s win after only reaching that mark in five games last season. Josh Dobbs was the quarterback in all but one of those games. 102: Cornerback Cameron Sutton piled up 102 yards on three punt returns, all of which set up short touchdown drives. Sutton managed just 158 yards on 14 returns all of last season. 35: Tennessee’s starting offensive line of Kyler Kerbyson, Jashon Robertson, Coleman Thomas, Dylan Wiesman and Brett Kendrick entered the game with 35 career combined starts, which ranks 116th (out of 128) in the FBS according to ESPN analyst Phil Steele.
SATURDAY’S STAR
The two-headed monster at running back the Vols were hyping going into the season lived up to the expectations. Alvin Kamara and Jalen Hurd combined for 267 yards and five touchdowns on 38 carries. Tennessee hadn’t had two 1oo-yard backs in the same game since the 2009 opener against Western Kentucky (Montario Hardesty 160, Bryce Brown 104).
SATURDAY’S STAT