Dylan Sampson broke the Tennessee football record for rushing touchdowns in a season and the No. 7 Vols held off Kentucky for a 28-18 victory on Saturday night.
Sampson scored on a 7-yard run in the third quarter and a 6-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. Those were his 18th and 19th rushing TDs of the season. That broke Gene McEver‘s single-season UT record of 18 rushing TDs, set in 1929.
Two weeks after beating Alabama, the Vols (7-1, 4-1 SEC) are in position to be listed in the first College Football Playoff rankings on Nov. 5.
Tennessee (6-1, 3-1 SEC) plays Kentucky (3-5, 1-5) on Saturday (7:45 p.m. ET, SEC Network) at Neyland Stadium.
UT has dominated the rivalry against Kentucky (3-6, 1-6). The Vols have won 37 of last 40 meetings, and coach Josh Heupel has a 4-0 record against UK.
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Dylan Sampson with his second rushing touchdown, this one from six yards out, for a 28-18 lead with 4:55 left in the fourth quarter.
Ja’Mori Maclin with a 32-yard touchdown catch from Gavin Wimsatt with 13:31 left in the fourth quarter. Kentucky converts two-point conversion.
Nico Iamaleava with a 6-yard pass to Miles Kitselman and Tennessee increases its lead to 21-10 with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.
Dylan Sampson with 7-yard touchdown run to give Tennessee a 14-10 lead with 8:28 left in the third quarter.
Alex Raynor with 32-yard field goal to give Kentucky a 10-7 lead with 30 second left in the second quarter.
Peyton Lewis scores from 1-yard out to allow Tennessee to tie Kentucky 7-7 with 4:45 left in the second quarter.
Brock Vandagriff of Kentucky finds Josh Kattus for a 27-yard TD pass with 5:28 left in the first quarter.
Tennessee’s game against Kentucky is set to kick off at 7:45 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 19, at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville.
The game will air live on SEC Network, with streaming options available on the ESPN app or Fubo, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers. Tom Hart will handle play-by-play duties with Jordan Rodgers as the color analyst for the broadcast. Cole Cubelic will serve as the sideline reporter.
*Tennessee won the 2019 game, but it was vacated due to NCAA violations
Tennessee 34, Kentucky 17: Kentucky gives up a lot of rushing yards and an occasional deep pass. That’s a good setup for Dylan Sampson to run wild and Nico Iamaleava to get big passing opportunities off play action. Expect UT’s defense to be stingy, per usual, as the Vols start their November stretch run. Check out more predictions from our Knox News staff.
Game lines and odds from BetMGM as of Saturday:
Injury list is from the SEC availability report released Friday. This list will be updated when the SEC’s availability report is updated 90 minutes prior to kickoff.
The forecast calls for 68 degrees and cloudy skies at kickoff.
All times Eastern
Denotes conference game*
All times Eastern
Denotes conference game*
Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
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