KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Exactly nine years to the day after it pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State nearly did it again.A couple of missed kicks and an inability to recover an overtime fumble prevented the Mountaineers from getting it done.Jalen Hurd pounced on quarterback Joshua Dobbs fumble in the end zone and No. 9 Tennessee overcame a 10-point halftime deficit to escape with a 20-13 victory over Appalachian State on Thursday night.Its definitely heartbreaking, said Appalachian States Marcus Cox, who rushed for 115 yards. I feel like we put ourselves in position to win, and we just didnt capitalize when we should have.Appalachian State was trying to stage a repeat of its 2007 upset of No. 5 Michigan, which marked the first time a Football Championship Subdivision program had beaten a Top 25 team. The Mountaineers have since left the FCS ranks and had their first season as a full-fledged Bowl Subdivision member last year.Tennessee faced third-and-goal from the 2 when Dobbs ran to his right and lost control of the ball as he tried to stretch his arms across the goal line. Hurd won the scramble for the loose ball in the end zone to give the Volunteers their only lead of the night.I thought I was in, and then I just saw Jalen dive on the ball and I said, `All right, were good. We scored, Dobbs said. A touchdowns a touchdown.Micah Abernathy ended the game by breaking up a pass into the end zone on fourth-and-5 from the 20.The Vols tied it on Dobbs 67-yard touchdown pass to Josh Malone with 10:30 left in regulation. Appalachian State redshirt freshman kicker Michael Rubino, who earlier missed an extra point, was wide right on a 42-yard field goal attempt with 5:24 remaining.Rubinos miss wasted a 57-yard punt return by Jaquil Capel that gave Appalachian State the ball at the 28.Tennessee entered the season with its highest ranking since 2006 after winning its final six games last year, but the Volunteers looked nothing like a Top 10 team Thursday. The Volunteers committed two first-half turnovers and lost linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin to a targeting penalty in the opening quarter as Appalachian State built a 13-3 lead.On a night where just about everything and anything went wrong, we found a way to win, Tennessee coach Butch Jones said.Cam Sutton fumbled on a punt return and Appalachian States Alex Gray recovered at Tennessees 36 to set up the first touchdown, a 5-yard keeper from Taylor Lamb barely four minutes into the game. Appalachian States other touchdown came in the second quarter on a 33-yard completion from Lamb to Cox.THE TAKEAWAYAppalachian State: The Mountaineers had lost by at least 28 points in each of their six meetings with Power Five teams since that Michigan game, but they showed Thursday that they could compete with college footballs big-name programs. Appalachian State refused to get pushed around and kept Tennessees offense out of the end zone for the first 49 1/2 minutes.Cox showed he can run effectively against any team from any conference. Cox now has 4,203 career yards rushing to rank second among all active FBS players, behind San Diego States Donnel Pumphrey.Tennessee: The Vols vowed they werent overlooking Appalachian State and werent distracted by sky-high preseason expectations, but something was clearly missing Thursday.The biggest question surrounding Tennessee during the offseason was whether it could add efficiency and explosiveness to its passing attack. That area remains a major concern. Dobbs went 16 of 29 for 192 yards with one touchdown and an interception.Im never going to apologize for a win, guys, Jones said. I think weve learned around here wins are pretty hard to come by.KEY NUMBERSAppalachian State reached Tennessee territory on four second-half possessions but failed to score on any of them. ... Appalachian State controlled the ball for 33 1/2 minutes to keep Tennessees offense off the field. ... Tennessee rushed for just 127 yards on 43 carries. ... Dobbs, who ran for a combined 1,160 yards in 2014-15, had minus-4 yards rushing on nine carries.UP NEXTAppalachian State: The Mountaineers have their home opener Sept. 10 against Old Dominion. Appalachian State must avoid looking ahead to its Sept. 17 home game with Miami.Tennessee: The Volunteers face Virginia Tech at the Bristol Motor Speedway. 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The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. Discount NHL Jerseys . It is a cliché dragged out by fans and pundits regularly when discussions take place around which teams are better than others. NEW YORK -- Amid media reports that the Yankees are considering releasing Alex Rodriguez and eating the approximately $28 million remaining on his contract, sources told ESPN that Rodriguez and team owner Hal Steinbrenner met and spoke Friday before the teams 3-2 win over the San Francisco Giants.According to a source, the meeting took place at Yankee Stadium and was initiated by Steinbrenner. A party privy to the conversation said, It was a very positive conversation, and that the subject of the Yankees releasing Rodriguez never came up.Rodriguez batted cleanup Friday against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, whom he had never faced, and went 0-for-4, dropping his season batting average to .206. He has nine home runs and 29 RBIs and a .619 OPS, third lowest among the 10 Yankees players with at least 200 plate appearances.Rodriguez has just two hits in 23 at-bats oon the Yankees current homestand, one a 40-foot dribbler to third base last Friday against the Boston Red Sox and the other a 440-foot home run on Monday against the Baltimore Orioles.dddddddddddd That homer was his first at Yankee Stadium since April 17. He is four shy of 700 home runs for his career.Rodriguez has been out for early batting practice before every game this week. He told ESPN that he is working on a new approach at the plate that he believes is reducing his strikeouts and his chase rate, his tendency to swing at pitches out of the strike zone, which plagued him earlier in the season.I feel like Im ready to be really productive again, he said.Rodriguez, who will turn 41 on Wednesday, is signed through the 2017 season. ' ' '