COLUMBIA, Mo. - In a football season when the Tennessee Volunteers have done nothing predictable, it makes sense they would make what was statistically a dominating performance look a lot more difficult and turn out a lot closer than it should have been.
Yet the Vols got the job done, and with it, they got one more win.
And the program's first bowl berth since 2016.
Tennessee picked up its fifth win in the past six games with a 24-20 victory over Missouri on Saturday night in front of 49,348 at Memorial Stadium to improve to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in Southeastern Conference play.
With only next Saturday's 4 p.m. visit from Vanderbilt (3-8, 1-6) remaining in the regular season, the Vols are guaranteed of at least avoiding a losing SEC record for the first time since 2016. If they end their three-game series losing streak against the Commodores, they'll have their first winning league mark since 2015.
The Vols dominated the stat sheet against the Tigers (5-5, 2-4), racking up 526 offensive yards that represented both a season high and the most Missouri has allowed all year. But a late turnover and some special teams blunders kept the game close, and it took a fourth-quarter stop by Tennessee's defense to get the ball back to the offense, which gained a couple first downs to seal it.
Here are three observations from the win.
1. Jarrett Guarantano moments: After the game, Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt called quarterback Jarrett Guarantano's 415-yard, two-touchdown passing performance "the best he's played," and that would be hard to argue. the redshirt junior whose starting status has been in flux this season wasn't always accurate - he was 13-for-27 on first and second downs - but he was at his best when the pressure was on, going 10-of-13 on third down for 161 yards, including big completions to Jauan Jennings and Josh Palmer for first-down conversions on the final drive. Nine of Guarantano's third-down completions resulted in first downs, and both of his touchdowns also came on third down.
"That goes a lot into film study," Guarantano said. "Being able to see things with (quarterbacks coach Chris) Weinke, he did a really good job of helping me out. They played a lot of Tampa 2, One Hole, Three Double Cloud (coverage), and being able to see those things out there really helped me out."
Guarantano also praised offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, saying he "put me in a lot of really good positions to throw the ball downfield, protection-wise."
He became the first Tennessee player since Tyler Bray in 2012 to throw for more than 400 yards in a game. That also came against Missouri, and Chaney was also the offensive coordinator in that game. He had worked at Arkansas, Pittsburgh and Georgia since then before returning to Knoxville this past offseason.
2. Receivers lead the way: The recent play of Tennessee's wide receivers has been well-documented, and they only cemented that with their performance against the Tigers, with Jennings, Palmer and Marquez Callaway each going over the 100-yard mark, the first time in Tennessee history three receivers have done so. Palmer led the way with 124 yards on six catches, while Callaway had 110 on six and Jennings 115 on five. Callaway and Jennings had touchdowns, but it was the clutch catches that moved the chains and the chunk plays that resulted in scores. Fifteen of Guarantano's completions went for more than 15 yards, with one of the three 100-yard receivers grabbing 13 of those.
"In practice we go hard every time," Palmer said. "We challenge each other to make plays. Whenever we see one of us make a play, we feed off each other.
"Basically it's a competition within ourselves."
3. Defensive shutdown - again: While the offense was solid, the Vols did struggle some to finish drives, coming up empty on a pair of field-goal attempts (one was deflected, one blocked) and losing a fourth-quarter fumble while trying to salt the game away. Yet the Tennessee defense controlled the game. Missouri had some success in the first half but was unable to consistently move the ball in the second. The Tigers' lone touchdown came on a trick play, they finished with 116 yards on 30 plays in the final 30 minutes and Tennessee's defense locked them down on their final futile attempt to score, forcing a three-and-out series that turned the ball back over to the Vols.
"We take a lot of pride in that," said senior linebacker Daniel Bituli, who had 12 tackles and a sack. "The offense did a great job of putting points up there, and when things weren't going their way, it was our time to step up and I feel like we did that. It was an all-out team win. Credit to everybody: Offense, defense, special teams - we all just played a role in this, so I'm happy."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.