Volunteers are not even nicked in Death Valley
NO. 8 TENNESSEE 40 NO. 25 LOUISIANA STATE 13
BATON ROUGE, La. — Hendon Hooker passed for two touchdowns, Jabari Small ran for 127 yards and two scores, and No. 8 Tennessee punished No. 25 Louisiana State for its mistakes and risk-taking in a resounding 40-13 victory over the Tigers on Saturday.
A morning kickoff lured LSU fans to Tigers Stadium considerably earlier than usual — and many were gone by the end of the third quarter, when Tennessee led 37-7.
The Volunteers (5-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) matched their best start to a season since 2016 with balance on offense, sound defense that corralled dual-threat LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, and opportunistic special teams play.
Hooker passed for 239 yards, with touchdowns of 45 and 14 yards to Jalin Hyatt. The fleet-footed quarterback also accounted for 56 of Tennessee’s 264 yards on the ground. Bru McCoy caught seven passes for 140 yards, drawing howls of “Bruuuuuuu!” from a sizable contingent of fans in Volunteer orange.
Tennessee sacked Daniels five times with defensive lineman Byron Young accounting for half of that total.