The last touchdown.
It’s not a college football statistic that is discussed like rushing offense and turnover margin, but the 11th-ranked Tennessee Volunteers have played seven times this season entering Saturday’s game at South Carolina, and they have scored the last touchdown in all seven contests. In its three Southeastern Conference matchups this month, Tennessee tallied touchdowns in the final four minutes to put away Auburn 24-14 and Alabama 26-10, and the Vols reached the end zone in the final two minutes to defeat Arkansas 24-17.
“At practice, we just focus on getting better every play,” Vols fifth-year senior guard Donovan Haslam said this week in a news conference, “so once we get into the fourth quarter, we want to basically punish our opponent and make them tap out. We basically try to make them quit.”
Tennessee is coming off its most impressive possession of the year, a 15-play, 72-yard journey against Alabama that consumed nine minutes and 32 seconds of last Saturday’s fourth quarter. It was the longest drive of the Josh Heupel era from a time consumption standpoint, and it concluded with senior running back DeSean Bishop powering into the end zone from 5 yards out.
Bishop wound up with 32 carries for 159 yards and two touchdowns in what was not only the latest dream game for him but for his offensive linemen.