Tennessee, SEC's drama king, somehow lives on after double-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech

Bill Bender

•
Tennessee, SEC's drama king, somehow lives on after double-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech image

"Hold my beer" tweets were out in full force before Tennessee's 42-41 double-overtime thriller against Georgia Tech at Mercedes-Benz Stadium really got rolling.

Midway through the third quarter against Georgia Tech, the hot seat comparisons between Tennessee's Butch Jones and Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin were out in full force.

WATCH: Scores, highlights from Tennessee-Georgia Tech

The Aggies blew a 44-10 lead in a loss to UCLA on Sunday. Tennessee was about to go down to the Yellow Jackets. It was almost too easy. In fact, it started a day early.

Then Tennessee reverted to the first-half-of-2016-drama-club to snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat that left us all saying, "What the hell just happened?"

Hold my beer? There's no time. Trying to decipher the key points almost produces the same effect.

The Vols had 19 yards of offense after the first quarter and fewer than 100 yards at halftime. The comeback came courtesy of two touchdown connections between first-time starter Quenten Dormady and Marquez Callaway, not to mention a miraculous turn of fortune on a 36-yard run by J.J. Green late in the fourth quarter. Rashaan Gaulden stripped Green, and Micah Abernathy recovered the fumble. John Kelly's touchdown run tied the score seven plays later.

Georgia Tech's vaunted triple-option option piled up 535 yards but blew a 14-point lead in the second half — and still had a chance to win at the end of regulation before Tennessee blocked the potential game-winning field goal.

All that was before overtime.

MORE: College Football Playoff outlook

Of course, the teams traded scores in the first overtime. Of course, they traded touchdowns in the second overtime. Of course, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson elected to go for two in the second overtime trailing 42-41. Of course, Tennessee stuffed the 2-point conversion attempt when Darrell Taylor smacked TaQuon Marshall, who tried to lateral to no avail. What a fantastic way to finish the first victory of college football.

Butch Jones, from hot seat to hero in just one half. It's just like 2016.  We don't quite know how good Tennessee is, but we know they're going to be highly entertaining while we figure it out.

Here's the big difference from last season. The Volunteers didn't come into the season as the favorite in the SEC East, and lesser expectations could produce better results. Florida hasn't settled on a quarterback and is dealing with the suspension of 10 players. Georgia just lost its starting quarterback heading into a nonconference battle against Notre Dame. The Vols will be in the mix again, and chances are it's going to be every bit as entertaining as last year.

Tennessee is 1-0. Save the beer for next week. 

Bill Bender

Bill Bender Photo

Bill Bender graduated from Ohio University in 2002 and started at The Sporting News as a fantasy football writer in 2007. He has covered the College Football Playoff, NBA Finals and World Series for SN. Bender enjoys story-telling, awesomely-bad 80s movies and coaching youth sports.