{"id":84554,"date":"2025-12-30T21:20:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=84554"},"modified":"2025-12-30T21:20:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:20:47","slug":"illinois-wins-physical-music-city-bowl-over-tennessee-in-a-walk-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/12\/30\/illinois-wins-physical-music-city-bowl-over-tennessee-in-a-walk-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Wins Physical Music City Bowl Over Tennessee in a Walk-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

We expected it to be a high-scoring affair<\/a>, but the first half of the Music City Bowl was anything but. Tennessee came into this matchup after making its money on explosive plays, while Illinois was looking like it was going to be without its most crucial defenders. When the teams finally kicked off, it took a while to get going, but a 41-point second half made it one of the best bowls of the year.<\/p>\n

But hey, at least Bret Bielema didn’t mock Josh Heupel as he did Shane Beamer last year! As a result, the Big Ten has moved to 6-0 in bowl games. The win marks the first time in Illinois history that it has won back-to-back bowls.<\/p>\n

Walk-Off Field Goal Wins Music City Bowl<\/h2>\n

Empty Calories<\/h3>\n

Illinois’ first punt of the game came with 11:58 to go in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

On the opening drive of the game, Luke Altmyer<\/a> and the offense rattled off five straight successful plays, aided by a crucial personal foul. Then, the drive stalled out after a false start, a one-yard run, and two deep shots, resulting in Tennessee taking over at its own 33. The second drive was much better, as Illinois had to respond to Tennessee’s touchdown. The Illini drove 75 yards on nine plays to even the scoring at seven.<\/p>\n

After the Illini defense got a three-and-out, Altmyer and the offense had an opportunity to take the lead. It was a bit more difficult the third time around as Altmyer took his first sack of the game. Despite that, the Illini were able to drive well into Tennessee territory, but turned it over again on the 29 after another fourth-down pass fell incomplete.<\/p>\n

Tennessee was not immune to disappointing drives, either. After getting the ball at its own 29, Tennessee had an opportunity to take the lead back. Each of the first seven plays of the drive was on the ground, including a six-yard sack. Then, Joey Aguilar<\/a> found Mike Matthews<\/a> for the Volunteers’ first chunk play for 16 yards. They were in a great position at the Illinois 20, but a negative run, a short pass, and a drop on a deep ball forced the field goal unit onto the field. Then, Max Gilbert<\/a> missed it.<\/p>\n

At halftime, Illinois had out-gained Tennessee 204 to 127 in a three-point gamethe Illini owned time of possession 18:16 to 11:44. In the end, the Illini had the edge, 417-278, and had to win it at the gun.<\/p>\n

Third Quarter Excitement<\/h3>\n

When the teams came out of the locker room, Illinois held a slim 10-7 lead. The teams traded blows until the final whistle. The Illini owned the third quarter, getting out to a 24-14 lead. Illinois was able to score a pair of touchdowns thanks to an incredible strip sack and fumble recovered in the endzone on Tennessee’s second second-half drive. The Volunteers responded by driving down the field thanks to three plays of 15+ yards, and DeSean Bishop<\/a> scored on a one-yard push. Illinois was not going to be denied, however. Altmyer led the offense down the field, and the Illini scored thanks to back-to-back explosive scrambles followed by a 14-yard strike to extend the lead.<\/p>\n

It was made possible by the game that Aidan Laughery<\/a> put together. The redshirt junior accounted for 77 yards on 13 carries. Of that, 49 yards came in the second half as Illinois was trying to finish the game.<\/p>\n

Walking off the Music City Bowl<\/h3>\n

The fourth quarter got exciting for Tennessee. On a drive that carried over from the third, Bishop found the endzone for his second touchdown, this time from 12 yards out to bring the Volunteers to within three. Illinois was able to drive down the field again, but stalled and settled for a field goal. Then, true freshman Joakim Dodson bobbled the ensuing kickoff and tore up the sideline for a go-ahead 98-yard kickoff return touchdown.<\/p>\n

Illinois then took the ball and drove down the field for its seventh eight-plus-play drive; the Illini had the ball eight times and had legitimately threatening drives on all but one. The game nearly ended as the Illini faced a fourth and one from the Tennessee 31. After a timeout and lengthy review, Illinois ran a fullback dive for 13 yards that was a broken tackle away from being the potential game-winner. As a result, Illinois was able to pound away with run after run to set itself up for the game-winning field goal. When the offense needed to have it, it had what it took.<\/p>\n

Up Next<\/h3>\n

Both of these teams will likely have to figure out their quarterback positions with veterans leading the way this year. Illinois’ schedule next year will kick off with UAB, Duke, and Southern Illinois, all at home. Then, once the Big Ten schedule is finalized, the Illini will face Iowa, Nebraska, Oregon, Purdue, Maryland, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, and UCLA.<\/p>\n

As for Tennessee, the Volunteers’ schedule will open with Furman, Georgia Tech, and Kennesaw State. Then, the SEC schedule begins. Tennessee will host Texas and Auburn, travel to Arkansas, host Alabama, travel to South Carolina, host Kentucky, travel to Texas A&M, and conclude the year with back-to-back home games against LSU and Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n

Main Image: \u00a0Andrew Nelles \/ The Tennessean \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Music City Bowl never disappoints. This year, two orange-clad teams needed all 60 minutes to decide a winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":84559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35604,7361,35587],"tags":[1894,4586,149],"class_list":["post-84554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illinois-fighting-illini","category-bowl-games","category-tennessee-volunteers","tag-bret-bielema","tag-josh-heupel","tag-shane-beamer"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84561,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84554\/revisions\/84561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}