Tennessee’s 2019 football season is off to a terrible start after the Volunteers lost, 38-30, to Georgia State on Saturday.
As a 24.5 favorite, Tennessee was expected to easily win this one, despite winning just nine games across the last two seasons. And to make matters worse, as USA TODAY Sports‘ Steve Berkowitz explained, the Volunteers actually paid the Panthers, a Sun Belt Conference team, $950,000 to come into their stadium and beat them.
It was a stunning loss and awful way to open the season after finishing with a 5-7 record last year in Jeremy Pruitt’s first season as head coach. And after this, Tennessee fans are rocking a pretty bleak outlook for the rest of the Volunteers’ schedule, which includes Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
Tennessee had a slight 14-7 lead in the second quarter, but Georgia State opened the second half with a touchdown to take a 21-17 lead. The Volunteers took it back with a field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but it didn’t last long. The Panthers kept scoring touchdowns, while Tennessee had a fumble and an interception to end two of their drives as the team fell apart.
Needless to say, Tennessee fans are already miserable after the first game of the season.
