|
|
|
|
Tennessee Volunteers © |
Vanderbilt Commodores |
|
Played November 30, 1974 at Dudley Field Nashville, Tennessee |
|
Teams' Belt Records
|
Team |
Belt Reigns |
Overall Record |
Home Record |
Away Record |
Neutral Record |
||||||||||||
|
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
W |
L |
T |
PCT |
||
| Tennessee © | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | ||||
| Vanderbilt | 0 | ||||||||||||||||
Previous Belt Meetings: None
|
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
Final |
|
|
Tennessee |
13 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
21 |
|
Vanderbilt |
7 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
21 |
The Vanderbilt Commodores, coached by Steve Sloan, came to the annual rivalry game with the Volunteers with a record of 7-3. The Tennessee Volunteers of coach Bill Battle had rebounded after a slow start to stand at 6-3-1 & owning a 9-game win streak over the Commodores. A win for Vanderbilt on this rain-soaked day would give the Commodores their second bowl bid ever along with The Belt. Tennessee took advantage of a late fumble to score a touchdown with 0:07 left in the game &, with a successful 2-point conversion, the Volunteers escaped with a 21-21 tie to retain The Belt (“To Be The Man, You Have To Beat The Man”). After forcing Vanderbilt to punt, Tennessee took only 3 plays & 54 seconds to travel 80 yards for a touchdown. Tennessee's RB Stanley Morgan lost 3 yards on his first carry before QB Condredge Holloway threw an 81-yard pass to TE Tommy West. Morgan carried the final 2 yards as the Volunteers took a 7-0 lead. Following another Commodores' punt, Tennessee rode RB Mike Gayles on their next drive covering 59 yards. Gayles carried on 6 of the 7 plays in the drive gaining 56 of the 59 yards including a 1-yard touchdown run. The missed 2-point conversion attempt still gave Tennessee a 13-0 lead with 5:43 left in the 1st quarter. Vanderbilt put together a 12-play, 73-yard scoring drive with QB Bill Lee scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run but the Commodores trailed 13-7 entering the 2nd quarter. Late in the 2nd quarter, Vanderbilt took the lead with a 9-play, 80-yard drive capped by a 20-yard screen pass for a touchdown from Lee to RB Lonnie Sadler giving the Commodores a 14-13 halftime lead. In the 3rd quarter, Vanderbilt's CB Jay Chesley intercepted a Holloway pass giving the Commodores the ball at the Tennessee 36-yard line. Sadler’s 29-yard run highlighted the 3-play scoring drive with RB Jamie O’Rourke carrying the final 6 yards for the touchdown giving Vanderbilt a 21-13 advantage. The teams continues to trade punts throughout the rest of the 3rd quarter & into the 4th quarter except for one Tennessee drive was stopped at the Vanderbilt 18-yard line when Morgan was tackled short of the first down marker on a 4th & 1 yard play. In the game, the teams combined for 21 punts. Late in the game, Vanderbilt took possession at their own 20-yard line but after 3 runs produced 0 yards, the Commodores' All-SEC TE Barry Burton who also handled the punting duties set-up for his 12th kick of the game. In the 1973 game with Tennessee, Burton faced a similar situation late in the game. Leading 17-13, Burton decided to try a fake & run for the first down but he was stopped short. The Volunteers got the winning touchdown shortly after. No one in the stadium expected Burton to do anything but punt this year but he may have been thinking of another fake. Burton mishandled the snap & Tennessee recovered the ball at the Vanderbilt 11-yard line with 0:47 to play. Trailing by 8 points, the Volunteers took advantage as Morgan carried 4 straight times to get into the end zone with 0:07 left but the it was the 2-point conversion pass from Holloway to WR Larry Seivers that saved The Belt for Tennessee. Many of the partisan Commodores' fans believed Seivers made the catch out of the end zone as the back judge seemed to start to rule the pass incomplete before ruling the conversion successful. With the tie, both teams headed to the bowl season - Tennessee to the Liberty Bowl & Vanderbilt to the Peach Bowl. Holloway finished with 149 yards passing with an interception. For Vanderbilt, Lee threw for 88 yards with a touchdown, O’Rourke rushed for 152 yards with a touchdown, & Sadler rushed for 100 yards in the loss. Tennessee finished the season 7-3-2; ranked 20th nationally while the Commodores also finished 7-3-2. Vanderbilt would play for The Belt again in 1983.
