KNOXVILLE – And then John Kelly fumbled. For the first time all year. After turning a short pass from quarterback Quinten Dormady into a 44-yard gain.
If you want to focus on one play to sum up the futility present throughout Tennessee’s 41-0 loss to Georgia on Saturday afternoon inside a sold-out, checkerboarded Neyland Stadium, that third-quarter turnover by the Volunteers’ best running back would be as good as any.
Not that the Vols appeared to have much of a chance of winning before that miscue, given the 24-0 hole they were in at that moment. After all, this was a Big Orange bewilderment that included: Dormady being intercepted on the first play from scrimmage; an offense that was 1-for-12 on third-down conversions and gained but 142 total yards; and a punt from the normally terrific Trevor Daniel that never rose more than four feet off the ground before being blocked by the Bulldogs’ D’Andre Walker’s helmet early in the fourth quarter.
If this was to be the Vols’ argument for embattled fifth-year coach Butch Jones deserving a little job security, he might as well call for the moving van before the entirety of the Big Orange Nation does it for him.
But the Vols had also rallied from a 24-3 hole to win on this same field two years ago. They’d beaten the Bulldogs on a Hail Mary at the horn last season at Sanford Stadium. So seeing Kelly race up the field, momentarily running fast and free, a touchdown possibly in his very near future, provided the most fleeting of moments to believe in another Tennessee comeback attempt, if only not to waste this wonderful late September football Saturday.