COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Ninth-ranked Tennessee has won two straight home games against teams that were ranked No. 6 in the AP Top 25 poll.
But after losing a thriller at unranked South Carolina the week following their victory over Alabama, the Volunteers are focused on avoiding another letdown this week at Texas A&M in the wake of Saturday’s rout of Kentucky.
And coach Josh Heupel knows his team can’t underestimate the Aggies despite their struggles
this season.
“It’s a really good football team,” he said. “It’ll be a great environment. I’ve been there before and it will take us being at our best.”
Tennessee jumped from 16th to ninth in the poll and 13th to No. 8 in the College Football Playoff rankings after its 34-6 win over Kentucky that snapped the Wildcats’ six-game winning streak.
Now the Volunteers visit an A&M team reeling after a 17-9 loss at South Carolina last week that dropped them to 4-5. The Aggies need two wins in their last three games to become bowl eligible a year after an 11-1 regular season that earned them their first CFP berth.
“It’s an opportunity for us to get off the mat and prove who we are and what we’re about,” coach Mike Elko said. “It’ll take a great week of preparation.”
If they hope to salvage their season, the Aggies will have to find a way to slow down running back DeSean Bishop.
He had 109 yards rushing with two scores on Saturday to eclipse 1,000 yards for a second straight season, making him just the second player in school history with consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and the first since Johnnie Jones (1983-84).
Bishop ranks second in the SEC and 10th in the nation by averaging 118.4 yards a game and his 13 rushing scores are also second-most in the league and rank seventh nationally.
Though probably a bit biased, his position coach De’Rail Sims believes he should be getting Heisman Trophy hype.
“There’s no doubt about it. He deserves it,” Sims said. “When you sit up here and talk about the best player in college football for his team, it’s D. Bishop.”
Bishop often gets better as the game progresses, as he did on Saturday when both of his touchdowns came in the fourth quarter.
“There’s a couple of cuts early in the football game that DeSean and some of our other backs missed, but DeSean is tough, smart and does a great job getting his pads down,” Heupel said. “He made people miss in the hole, that four-minute drive. That happens because of his skill set.”
Though the Aggies have plenty of problems, perhaps their biggest one is their inability to finish drives.
The Aggies gained 467 yards against South Carolina but managed just three field goals. They are the first team in college football history to gain at least 450 yards with no turnovers and not score a touchdown.
It was the third game this season where they failed to score a touchdown after they also couldn’t get into the end zone in losses to LSU and Missouri.
Despite this, Elko said this week that he plans to stick with first-year offensive coordinator Holmon Wiggins as his play caller.
“I’m just doing what I believe is the best thing to give us a chance to be successful right now,” Elko said. “I think that’s how we evaluate everything and if I felt like there were better options or better opportunities or better things that we could do within the program to help us win, we would certainly do them.”
But he said all the problems on offense can’t be blamed on coaching.
“That’s obviously in part coaching, but that’s obviously something that we’ve got to correct and fix,” he said.
Tennessee’s dominant defense suffered a blow this week when it lost defensive lineman Tyree Weathersby to a season-ending knee injury.
Weathersby led a defense that ranks 18th in the nation in yards allowed per game and his seven sacks rank third in the SEC.
“I hate it for Tyree,” Heupel said. “He’s played extremely well. He’s worked extremely hard, was playing his best football, and I know he’ll bounce back from it. But obviously a huge bump in the road for him.”
Heupel said he’ll look to Mariyon Dye and Jordan Norman as well as some young players to step up to make up for the loss of Weathersby.
Texas A&M’s inability to get in the end zone Saturday overshadowed a big performance by running back Rueben Owens II.
He had 137 yards rushing for his fifth career 100-yard game and his most yards rushing since running for 142 last season against Mississippi State. His performance Saturday gave him more 1,500 yards rushing in his career.
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