No. 13 Rebels hold off Vols behind Corral's huge day
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - No. 13 Ole Miss held off Tennessee, 31-26, in a wild, tense game on Saturday night.
Ole Miss stopped Tennessee a yard shy of a first down on a fourth-and-24 pass with just over a minute left. After that play, and the review confirmed the spot of the ball.
Quarterback Matt Corral threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a career-high 195 yards for Ole Miss (5-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference).
Quarterback Hendon Hooker threw for 233 yards and a touchdown for Tennessee (4-3, 2-2) and ran for 108 yards and another score.
After play resumed following the play on fourth-and-24 that came up a yard short, Ole Miss went three-and-out and was forced to punt one more time. Tennessee's Velus Jones returned a punt 40 yards to the Ole Miss 47.
Hooker ran 14 yards, but was injured with 18 seconds to play. Joe Milton came off the bench to hit Walker Merrill for 12 yards to the 21. Milton spiked the ball, then misfired into the end zone, barely overthrowing his receiver for what would have been a game-winning touchdown.That left just three seconds on the clock and time for one final play.
Milton ran 13 yards on the final play and was pushed out of bounds at the 8 as time expired.
With Tennessee down 31-19 after three quarters, Hooker tightened it with a 5-yard scoring run less than 2 minutes into the fourth quarter.
Velus Jones had a 29-yard reception on the first possession of the second half to set the table for Jabari Small to score from a yard out to cut the Rebel lead to 24-19. It went to 31-19 when Corral found Dontario Drummond for a 16-yard score to close out the third quarter.
UP NEXT
Ole Miss: At Arkansas on Saturday.
Tennessee: At Alabama on Saturday.
That set up the final play where Milton ran 13 yards and was pushed out of bounds at the 8-yard line as time expired.