Tennessee football held on to knock off Arkansas 34-31 on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium. The Vols never led in the first half before opening up a 17-point lead early in the fourth quarter and holding on after a late Razorback push.
It wasn’t one of quarterback Joey Aguilar’s best statistical games this season but the super senior quarterback still turned in a strong performance. Aguilar completed 16-of-25 pass attempts for 221 yards and one touchdown. He was also effective using his legs, rushing for 59 yards on five carries.
Following the game, Aguilar discussed suffering a minor injury late in the game, receiver Braylon Staley’s big performance and more. Here’s everything Aguilar said.
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On if he got the wind knocked out of him on the last drive, how he’s feeling
“Yeah, I feel good right now. But that ball was deep in my stomach. Knocked the air out of me for sure.”
On Arkansas having different defensive looks with a new defensive coordinator
“For sure, the past two weeks we kind of (were preparing) to go against four different defenses. Not sure what we were going to get but prepared for whatever they came out in. They came out in a certain defense and tried to switch it up in the second half. We just stayed to our preparation and executed as an offense.”
On learning from the tight SEC games, if there’s a commonality
“Definitely. Just kind of in a situation. Playing in a game like that, great three teams, and just being in that situation before just shows everybody we’ve been here and we know what to expect and just have to dig harder, lean on our teammates and just go out and execute.”
On Braylon Staley’s performance, leaning on him
“A lot. He’s a young guy. He and Mike and Brazzell just came in and worked. Today, they tried to take Brazzell out of the game. Kind of double teaming him and playing super soft. Braylon stepped up and when he got the ball he produced pretty well.”
On DeSean Bishop’s big game and then Peyton Lewis entering for him after the injury
“It’s awesome. We have a deep running back core and all three of those guys go in and make plays and Bishop had the hot hand. He was making plays and then PLew came in and stepped up as well. Just to have a rotation of guys like that, knowing and trusting they’re going to go in there and do their job and do what they have to do is awesome.”
