KNOXVILLE — Talk about your successful apples-to-apples comparisons.
Tennessee opened its 2022 football season with a 59-10 hammering of Ball State before an announced Neyland Stadium audience of 92,236, nearly 8,000 more than last year’s opening crowd of 84,314 that witnessed the 38-6 thumping of Bowling Green. Both games were on Thursday nights, and both were against Mid-American Conference opponents.
“Hopefully that says there is a ton of belief and optimism and excitement that surrounds our program,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said. “I shouldn’t say ‘hopefully,’ because there is, and you can feel it. We appreciate that in our program — the coaches and players and the effort that has gone into getting to this point — we appreciate our fans backing us up and coming out in a big way.”
The Volunteers played before just three crowds last season that were larger than Thursday night: home against Ole Miss (102,455), at Alabama (100,077) and home against Georgia (100,074).
“We appreciate all that the fans bring to the game,” Vols quarterback Hendon Hooker said. “It’s a whole new element when they’re in the stands and throwing the other team’s offense off or just heckling their defense. It’s always a blessing to have so many great supporters.”
Piling up points
Tennessee’s 59 points Thursday marked the fourth consecutive game in which the Vols have tallied at least 45, having closed last season with a 60-14 shellacking of South Alabama, a 45-21 whipping of Vanderbilt and the 48-45 overtime loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl.
The four straight occasions ties a school record, and it’s the first time since the last four games of the 1993 regular season, when they throttled South Carolina (55-3), Louisville (45-10), Kentucky (48-0) and Vanderbilt (62-14).
Milton’s big night
Backup quarterback Joe Milton had his most efficient performance with the Vols, completing 8 of 9 passes for 113 yards, including a 53-yard scoring strike to Jimmy Holiday that put Tennessee up 59-7 with 13:04 remaining.
“You guys know that we’ve felt like he has grown from the time he got back in January, much like Hendon has,” Heupel said. “We felt like they progressed, and each of them in their own way. Joe tonight showed some of the things we had seen throughout the course of training camp, which was extremely positive to see.”
Graduate Vols
Tennessee has 16 players this season who will be wearing “SEC Graduate” patches.
Among those 16 are Hooker and Milton, tight ends Princeton Fant and Jacob Warren, receiver Cedric Tillman, defensive end LaTrell Bumphus, linebacker Solon Page III, kicker Chase McGrath and punter Paxton Brooks.
The SEC introduced patches for its student-athletes during competitions in 2016.
Inactive quintet
Sidelined for Tennessee’s opener were fifth-year senior linebacker Juwan Mitchell, freshman receiver Chas Nimrod, redshirt freshman tight end Miles Campbell, sophomore cornerback De’Shawn Rucker and junior cornerback Dee Williams.
Mitchell, the only projected starter of the five, led the 2020 Texas Longhorns in tackles before transferring to Tennessee, but he was shut down after last September’s loss at Florida with a shoulder injury.
“He just wasn’t able to go in this one,” Heupel said. “We’ll reevaluate when we get to next week.”
Odds and ends
Among the freshmen tallying stats for the Vols were running back Dylan Sampson (10 carries for 32 yards), receiver Squirrel White (three catches for 25 yards) and outside linebacker Joshua Josephs (two tackles and sharing a tackle for loss). … Tennessee’s opponent next week, Pittsburgh, rallied past West Virginia 38-31 Thursday night. … The Vols finished last nationally in time of possession last season but basically played to a draw in that category after having the ball for 29 minutes and 55 seconds. … Heupel on the play of left tackles Gerald Mincey and JJ Crawford: “The biggest thing for both of those guys is that it didn’t matter who was in. You didn’t notice any issues. They were good in pass protection, and we were really pretty clean all night long.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.