Tennessee moves into first place in SEC standings after win over Mississippi State
Tennessee moved into first place in the SEC standings with its 33-14 win over Mississippi State Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. The Vols are now 5-1 in league play and hold the overall win-loss tiebreaker over Texas A&M, with the Aggies at 7-2 and Tennessee now at 8-1.
Texas is third in the standings at 8-1 overall and 4-1 in the SEC after the Longhorns 49-17 win over Florida Saturday afternoon in Austin.
Georgia dropped to fourth at 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the SEC after losing 28-10 at Ole Miss. Alabama is now 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEC after its 42-6 win at LSU. Ole Miss is 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the league after beating Georgia.
“Another SEC win,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said during his postgame press conference. “A good win. Proud of the way the guys played for four quarters. Competed hard, played physical.”
Tennessee at Georgia, Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC
Tennessee has won four straight home games since the 19-14 loss at Arkansas on October 5. The Vols beat Florida 23-17 in overtime, beat Alabama 24-17 and beat Kentucky 28-18 last week, before the 33-14 win over Mississippi State.
Now Tennessee goes back on the road at Georgia next week, a 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time start on ABC at Sanford Stadium in Athens. The Vols close the regular-season schedule with the home finale against UTEP on November 23 and a road game at Vanderbilt on November 30.
Heupel has Tennessee at 8-1 for the second time in three seasons. The Vols started 8-0 in 2022 before losing at Georgia.
On Saturday night starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava was ruled out at halftime with an upper-body injury. Heupel said after the game that Iamaleava is expected to be ready to go for the Georgia game.
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“We anticipate having him ready for next week,” Heupel said. “So (it was a) precautionary measure at halftime. So feel like we’ll be ready to roll next Saturday.”
Nico Iamaleava threw for 174 yards and two TDs in first half
Iamaleava completed 8 of 13 passes for 174 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. He threw a 34-yard touchdown to Squirrel White on Tennessee’s first possession and a 73-yarder to Dont’e Thornton in the second quarter.
Thornton also left the game in the second half with an upper-body injury.
Dylan Sampson ran a career-high 30 times for a career-high 149 yards, including a 33-yard touchdown in the second half to give him 20 rushing touchdowns on the season.
Backup quarterback Gaston Moore completed 5 of 8 passes for 38 yards and led Tennessee on three scoring drives in the second half, with one touchdown drive and two field goal drives.
“All in all, a really good night,” Heupel said. “Proud of the way the guys responded. Gaston (Moore), the way he played, the young running backs getting an opportunity, played really well. Defensively, just gave him a couple of runs, but all in all, great night. I think they were really good on third downs again.”
