Nico Iamaleava threw two touchdown passes in the first half before leaving with an injury, and Dylan Sampson rushed for his 20th score of the season Saturday night as No. 7 Tennessee stopped Mississippi State 33-14 in Knoxville, Tenn.
Iamaleava completed 8 of 13 passes for 174 yards but didn’t return for the second half after sustaining an upper-body injury late in the second quarter. However, the Volunteers (8-1, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) led 20-7 at the half and weren’t truly threatened by the Bulldogs (2-8, 0-6).
Sampson collected 149 yards on 30 carries, going over the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. Tennessee rolled up 452 total yards, split almost equally between rushing (240) and passing (212).
Freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. had a rough night for Mississippi State, hitting just 10 of 26 passes for 92 yards with an interception. The Volunteers’ defense applied steady pressure, notching four sacks.
Tennessee has tied Texas A&M for the SEC lead, a half-game ahead of Texas. The Volunteers can wrap up a spot in the SEC title game next month by winning next week at Georgia and on Nov. 30 at Vanderbilt.
Tennessee took a quick 7-0 lead just over three minutes into the game when Iamaleava and Squirrel White hooked up for a 34-yard strike. It became 14-0 at the 13:35 mark of the second quarter when Iamaleava started a drive by finding Dont’e Thornton for a 73-yard touchdown.
The Bulldogs got on the board with 5:47 left when Davon Booth, who rushed for 125 yards on 20 attempts, capped a march of nearly eight minutes with a 3-yard scoring jaunt. But Tennessee kicker Max Gilbert converted field goals of 24 and 38 yards in the final minute to make the halftime margin 13.
Gilbert boomed a 51-yarder at the 7:59 mark of the third quarter, before Johnnie Daniels ripped off an 18-yard touchdown run on Mississippi State’s next drive to pull the Bulldogs within 23-14.
Sampson answered with a 33-yard scoring burst with 3:31 remaining in the third, and Gilbert nailed a 38-yard field goal with 8:14 left in the game to cap the scoring.
