By Camden Gober
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — No. 15 Tennessee made easy work of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, winning 56-24 on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium.
Tennessee’s offense remains among the nation’s elite, while UAB’s defense ranks near the bottom in nearly every statistical category. For much of the first half, the matchup resembled a freight train hitting a paper napkin.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel was complimentary of his team’s fast start but emphasized that there’s still room for improvement.
“Good win. Liked a lot of what we did in the first half, some things that we need to clean up in all three phases of the game from the first half to the second half,” Heupel said. “Started fast. And our young guys rolled into the ballgame — some good, but a lot of things that game action is proof positive they’ve got to clean up too, and attention to detail. But all in all, good win.”
In just two and a half quarters of play, quarterback Joey Aguilar went 15 of 22 for 218 yards and three touchdowns. He started the game a perfect 8-for-8 before a deflected pass bounced off Chris Brazzell and into the hands of UAB safety Pierre Royster for an interception.
“Joey, what I love about him is, whether it’s a good play, bad play, good series, bad series, same demeanor coming off the sideline,” Heupel said. “He goes and approaches the next play, next series the same way. He’s aggressive but playing smart football. He had the one pick, gets batted up in the air, but he came back, reset, and played the next series. I think that’s one of many elite traits he has.”
Tennessee’s group of running backs had another productive day. Peyton Lewis led the Vols with 11 carries for 81 yards. Star Thomas added 9 carries for 51 yards and a touchdown, along with one reception for 17 yards and a receiving score. DeSean Bishop also contributed 59 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 9 carries.
“There’s some things that we really liked about the run game today,” Heupel said. “There’s some things that weren’t as clean as we felt like they could be. The run game’s important to our identity offensively, and a lot of really good things today.”
The Vols’ defense had some blemishes, but the front seven held UAB to just 23 rushing yards on 19 attempts. Despite missing key defensive linemen — Jaxson Moi, Daevin Hobbs, and Tyre West — Tennessee’s run defense never skipped a beat.
“Front seven operating together, striking blocks, penetration up front, making it bounce, second level doing a good job fitting, and when the safeties are in it, them as well,” Heupel said. “It’s important to win the line of scrimmage and ultimately get them in third and long and get off the football field. For the early part of the game, I thought we did a good job of that.”
Tennessee will now begin a five-game SEC stretch, starting with a road trip to Starkville to take on Mississippi State — the Vols’ first true road test of the season. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. ET next Saturday on the SEC Network.