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    • Tennessee beats UTEP 56-0 as the College Football Playoff door opens
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    Tennessee beats UTEP 56-0 as the College Football Playoff door opens

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    Tennessee football surged to a 56-0 victory over UTEP at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, grabbing an opening in the College Football Playoff race.

    Nico Iamaleava threw a career-high four touchdown passes as No. 11 Tennessee (9-2) scored in the second and third quarters against the Miners (2-9).

    Tennessee’s lopsided win and a few breaks in other games left the Vols in much better shape to make the twelve-team playoffs.

    Florida upset No. 9 Ole Miss 24-17. And No. 2 Ohio State defeated No. 5 Indiana 38-15.

    The Vols entered the weekend as the first team out of the playoffs, but will likely be back in the field. The updated College Football Playoffs rankings will be released Tuesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

    Tennessee plays Vanderbilt on Nov. 30 (noon ET, ABC) at First Bank Stadium in Nashville. But let’s end this win over UTEP with these four takeaways.

    Nico Iamaleava threw four touchdown passes

    Iamaleava got off to a shaky start. But boy, did he catch fire afterward.

    During a stretch that started in the second quarter, Iamaleava went 15 of 17, passing for 195 yards and four touchdowns, as the Vols delivered seven scoring drives with him behind center.

    Iamaleava threw a 9-yard TD pass to Squirrel White on a receiver screen, a 1-yard TD pass on a quick rollout, an 18-yard TD pass to Bru McCoy on the fade route and another 7-yard TD to McCoy.

    Iamaleava finished 17 of 23 passing for 209 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 36 yards.

    Dylan Sampson chases Vol’s rushing records

    Dylan Sampson moved closer to UT’s single-season rushing record and career rushing TD record with one regular-season game and the postseason remaining in 2024.

    Against UTEP, he rushed for 77 yards and one touchdown on 11 carries.

    Sampson now has 1,307 yards rushing. Travis Stephens rushed for 1,464 yards in 2001 for the UT single-season record.

    Sampson now has 35 career rushing TDs, tying James Stewart for second on UT’s all-time list. Gene McEver owns the UT career record with 37 rushing TDs scored between 1928 and 1931.

    Sampson already owns the UT single-season records for total TDs (22) and rushing TDs (22). He trails Alabama’s Derrick Henry, who set the SEC single-season record with 28 rushing TDs in 2015.

    Defense back to dominance

    Tennessee’s defense returned to form against an inferior opponent after a frustrating performance against Georgia in the previous game.

    The Vols forced two turnovers and had 15 tackles-for-loss.

    Jermod McCoy made his third interception of the season, tied with Will Brooks for the team lead. Rickey Gibson forced a fumble, and Dominic Bailey recovered it.

    James Pearce had two sacks and Joshua Josephs had two tackles-for-loss.

    25th win at Neyland Stadium under Josh Heupel

    Tennessee improved its home record to 25-4 during Josh Heupel’s four-year coaching tenure.

    It has won 20 of the last 21 at Neyland Stadium, including a 14-game home win streak that was capped by losses to Georgia in 2021 and 2023.

    The Vols finished the 2024 regular season with a 7-0 record at Neyland Stadium. At home, they were 5-3 in 2021, 7-0 in 2022 and 6-1 in 2023.

    Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football reporter. E-mail [email protected]. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing knoxnews.com/subscribe.

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