NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Learning on the job is getting a little more difficult for Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray.
The freshman who began his career with two victories, struggled for the first time as a starter, but still guided the Volunteers to their third straight win for the first time since 2007 and kept their chase for bowl eligibility alive with a 24-10 victory over Vanderbilt on Saturday night.
“It was just a bad night,” Bray said.
Bray completed nine of his first 10 passes and put the Volunteers (5-6, 2-5) up 14-0 over the Commodores (2-9, 1-7) midway through the second quarter with two touchdown passes. But after leading Tennessee to 102 points in victories over Memphis and Mississippi by throwing for 648 yards with eight touchdowns, he threwhis first two interceptions as a starter.
That stalled Tennessee’s offense, requiring a late touchdown run from Tauren Poole, set up by a failed onside kick, to clinch the victory and send Vanderbilt to its sixth straight loss.
“Tyler struggled with his decision-making, and you have to give Vanderbilt a lot of credit for that,” Tennessee coach Derek Dooley said. “You have to give our team a lot of credit. With all the mistakes, we still held them to 10 points and found a wayto win, and that’s all that matters.”
Poole’s 28-yard scoring run untouched off left tackle on fourth-and-2 with 1:11 left gave him 99 yards and the Volunteers their fifth consecutive victory over the Commodores and the 27th in 28 games in the series.
That scuttled a Vanderbilt rally that was too little, too late. The Commodores haven’t won a home game in the series since 1982 and struggled with offensive consistency much of the night.
Vanderbilt blew several opportunities to keep it close with a missed field goal and a blocked field goal in the first three quarters. The team got moving late when coach Robbie Caldwell replaced starting quarterback Larry Smith with Jared Funk. But the Commodores lost two more scoring chances when a wide receiver stepped out of bounds before catching a touchdown passand Funk threw an interception at the goal line.
Smith completed 11 of 27 passes for just 76 yards, and overall, Vanderbilt’s quarterbacks were 20 of 41 with 2 interceptions, continuing a trend of completing less than 50 percent of their passes.
“It was very frustrating,” Caldwell said. “They are working as hard as they can. Sometimes we get out-athleted, sometimes we don’t throw it, sometimes we miss assignments.”
Bray, who completed 16 of 27 passes for 232 yards, opened the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hunter in the first quarter and a 20-yard scoring pass to Denarius Moore.
It looked like a rout mightbe in Vanderbilt’s future when Prentiss Waggner intercepted Smith at the Vanderbilt 32. But Bray killed that drive and the next with his first interceptions as a starter, snapping his streak of 96 straight passes without one.
Bray is the latest in a line of freshmen who have had success as Tennessee’s starting quarterback. He’s one of five freshman to start for the Vols since 1994, when Peyton Manning began his career in Knoxville. Bray, now 3-0, has held his own with Manning (7-1), Casey Clausen (6-0), Erik Ainge (4-2) and Brent Schaeffer (3-0), but he knows he’s got work to do if he wants to guide Tennessee to the postseason.
Sports, Pages 35 on 11/21/2010