Bristol Herald Courier from Bristol, Tennessee • 36

D6 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11 2016 a BRISTOL HERALD COURIER HeraldCouriercor BUTTLE AT BRISTOL: BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY It's fair to say Battle at Bristol was a success College Game stfs Talk about wide screen TV I Day The lively It was fitting that both teams I show was capped rely on offenses that move at when quirky analyst Lee Corso 'Wj donned a huge Allen UT helmet after 1 Gregory picking the Vols BRISTOL Tenn he fans began arriving before sunrise By 7:30 pm Bristol Motor Speedway was a sea of orange and maroon While the lazy skeptics moaned over traffic sightlines and long waits tire Pilot lying Battle at Bristol was a success by nearly all standards The sellout crowd of 156990 witnessed an interesting tussle between regional rivals Virginia Tech and the University of Ten nessee As for atmosphere a fan could not ask for much more or the first time in recent memory the massive stadium actually rocked following touchdowns or the first act of Bristol the ater NASCAR icons Richard Pet ty and Dale Earnhardt Jr were interviewed on the set of ESPN Commentary to Win The pre game toss included Tennessee folk hero Peyton Manning along with the ultimate general in Speedway Motorsports Inc boss and BMS owner Bruton Smith It was Smith who conjured up the ambitious idea of a marriage between football and NASCAR 20 years ago Admittedly it was bit surreal watching a football game in this stock car racing haven but fans had the option to take it all in from the largest center hung television dubbed Colos warp speed and are directed by dual threat quarterbacks The short attention span mil lennial generation has grown up with smartphones that provide instant news and splashy video games that offer simulated ver sions of reality The Battle at Bristol not only broke the record for a college sporting event of any type it attracted one of the largest gath erings to ever witness a sports event in the world big stuff for a small city Just think of the economic impact for a region that has suf fered due to the decline in the coal industry High school and college foot ball have long provided a source of hope and inspiration to the resilient residents of East Ten nessee and Southwest Virginia The makeup of crowd appeared to have a 70 30 breakdown in favor of Tennes see But both sides were rowdy from the kickoff until the final whistle To the delight of Tech fans former Hokie head coach rank Beamer was introduced on the field after the first quarter And the man who helped turn Lane Stadium in Blacksburg into a mecca quarterbackMichael Vick supported his former team from the sidelines Tradition rich marching bands fireworks and five star athletes the Battle at Bristol had it all Most importantly the fun factor was off the charts or Tennessee fans the sight of quarterback Joshua Dobbs carving up another defense with his legs and arm was delightful There will another college football game at BMS next Sat urday between East Tennessee State University and Western Carolina Beyond that the future is lim itless As always when Bruton Smith is involved the sequel to the Battle at Bristol will be cinematic in scope And rest assured other track general managers promoters and venue operators will look to the follow the example of Bris tol Motor Speedway and stage sports spectaculars or now BMS holds the record for attendance In future generations that crowd of 156990 will expand to untold numbers agregorybristolnewscom Twitter: GregBHCSports (276) 645 2544 ft 77 rr I 'I 'JJT fT i i EARL NEIKIRK BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Tennessee Jalen Reeves Maybm (21) celebrates the win over Virginia Tech with Cameron Sutton on Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway following the Battle at Bristol Hubbard rom Page DI The VT side of the speed way rocked with glee while the orange clad faithful on the back stretch began to turn green with visions rapidly being to form of a sickening showing by the Vols in front of the largest collection of football fans in the history Then Micah Abernathy pounced On the first play of the second quarter Aberna thy who wound up with a school record three fumble recoveries seized a loose ball coughed up by the Hokies just 5 yards away from their own end zone A play later Jauan Jennings hauled in a touchdown pass from UT quarterback Joshua Dobbs to slash Virginia lead in half started out a little slow but our defense did a great job having our said Dobbs who rushed for 106 yards and two touch downs while throwing for 91 yards and three more scores By halftime a full fledged surge had lifted UT to a 24 14 lead Eventually the run would be 31 straight points for the Vols At the end of the night chants reverberated around BMS as the deliri ous Tennessee fans reveled in a blowout triumph tha go in the record book as a 45 24 victory for the Vols will never be rep licated and this will never be Jones said about the atmosphere at the speedway class all the Dobbs added Seemingly relegated to a perch on the sidelines with the Hokies rolling in the first quarter former Abingdon High School star Mitchell Ludwig was instead summoned five times to punt for Virginia Tech over the final 45 min utes of game time as UT took command Ludwig finished with an average of 344 yards on his quintet of punts but an attempted rugby style kick that went awry came in the midst second quarter surge as his running low drive went a mere 13 yards before plunking off the heel of un suspecting former Dobyns Bennett standout Malik oreman the tumbling pigskin forging an odd link between the two players with local roots The ball fortuitously bounced from foot to teammate Cortez waiting grasp setting up Tennessee just 23 yards away from the VT end zone Aaron Medley would go on take advan tage of the short field kicking a 34 yard field goal just over two minutes later to giveUTa 17 14 edge and ultimately the lead for good And so the Battle at Bris tol was won for the Vols It could be just the start of something even grander if the Knoxville crew has truly transformed into Tenacious Tennessee nhubbardbrlstolnewscorn Twitter: (276) 645 2543 Vols rom Page DI UT 400 yards to 330 but Tennessee recovered five Hokie fumbles to negate the disparity Safety Micah Abernathy set a Tennessee record for a game with three recoveries about our defense getting us five Jones said The Vols return to Neyland Sta dium next week to face Ohio as owners of an eight game winning streak third longest in BS The crowd orange was the ma jority broke the previous record of 115109 at Michigan Stadium in 2013 to watch Michigan and Notre Dame After Peyton Manning assisted with the coin toss the first half was simple Virginia Tech (1 1) owned the first quarter Tennessee the second The Vols however got 24 points from their quarter The Hokies opened the game making all the right moves on both sides of the ball except for miss ing a 47 yard field goal on their first possession Their second resulted in a 7 yard TD pass from Jerod Evans to Sam Rogers Their third was a two play drive that ended with Travon 69 yard touchdown sprint fora 14 0 lead The Hokies had nine first downs in the first quarter Tennessee but one When the teams switched ends of the field to start the second quarter momentum swung violently to Ten nessee The first snap of the second peri od from Virginia own 16 re sulted in an 1 1 yard loss and fumble that was recovered by Abernathy at the 5 The next play was a Dobbs lob that Jauan Jennings wrestled away from a Hokie defender in the end zone The Vols were on the board They weresoon on theboard again Dobbs ripped off a 40 yard run fol lowed two plays later by his 38 yard scoring pass to Josh Malone Suddenly it was 14 14 with 9:42 still left hi the half misadventures continued An 11 yard punt and a roughing the passer penalty on the Hokies set up Aaron 34 yard field goal The Vols led 17 14 Make that 24 14 A nine play drive featured an 18 yard Hurd run and ended with Dobbs waltzing in un touched for a 5 yard score Dobbs and Alvin Kamara connect ed on a 23 yard scoring pass in the third quarter to make it 31 14 Virginia Tech broke the run with a field goal and the fourth quarter be gan with UT up 31 17 After the Vols capitalized on more fumbles to go up 45 17 the Hokies staged a late scoring drive to arrive at the final margin AS I DWIDCRIGGER RRISTOt HRALDCOURIER Tennessee Shy Tuttle conies up with a fumble recovery as Virginia Tech quarterback Jerod Evans lost the ball stem.