SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 3, 2011
Two quick strike touchdowns set the tone, and Tennessee rolled to a lopsided win over a Football Championship Subdivision opponent for the second straight season, beating Montana by a 42-16 margin on Saturday.
After a storm delayed the start of the game by nearly two hours, the Vols (1-0) wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard. In the first seven minutes, Tyler Bray completed touchdown passes of 47 yards to DaกฏRick Rogers and 81 yards to Justin Hunter. The two drives, combined, took four plays, gained 131 yards and took less than two minutes off the game clock to complete.
A third scoring strike by Bray, this time from 9 yards out to Marlin Lane, and an 8-yard touchdown run by Tauren Poole bolstered Tennessee to an insurmountable 28-0 advantage.
Bray finished with 293 yards on 17 of 24 passing. Tauren Poole led the ground game with 98 yards, but 28 of those came on a single fourth-quarter scamper that set up a short TD run by Lane. Hunter and Rogers both had career nights with 146 and 100 receiving yards, respectively.
An 80-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Johnson to Jabin Sambrano in the second quarter was the big highlight for Montana (0-1), which failed to reach the FCS playoffs last season for the first time since 1982.