STARKVILLE, Miss. — Tennessee’s 2025 football season now has a heart-stopping overtime victory to go along with its heart-stopping overtime defeat.
DeSean Bishop’s 25-yard touchdown run on Tennessee’s first overtime play coupled with a defensive stand at the 4-yard line on Mississippi State’s overtime possession enabled the No. 15 Volunteers to outlast the Bulldogs 41-34 in a four-hour thriller Saturday before 60,417 inside Davis Wade Stadium with its ear-splitting cowbells.
“I’ll probably process all of this later tonight or tomorrow, but it was an exciting game that was super fun,” Tennessee senior quarterback Joey Aguilar after a 335-yard passing performance. “I’m still trying to process it, but it was a great team win. We had been in this position a couple of weeks ago, and we came back and focused on the details and got put in this position again.”
Tennessee will head into its first open date of the season with a 4-1 overall record — the only blemish being the 44-41 overtime loss to Georgia inside Neyland Stadium on Sept. 13 — and a 1-1 mark in Southeastern Conference play. Mississippi State is 4-1 overall and 0-1 in league play, suffering its 13th consecutive SEC loss but the first that wasn’t decided by double digits.
“I loved the way that we competed and how we played the next play and the next series,” Vols coach Josh Heupel said. “There was a whole lot that could have been a lot cleaner, but at the end of the day, it’s a win for who we consider to be the good guys. At the end of the day, I love competing with these guys.