Consistency, thy name is not Tennessee. The Vols followed a solid effort against East Tennessee State with a lackluster offensive performance against UTEP. The Miners are probably the worst FBS team in football.
Tennessee Vols Game Grades UTEP Edition
Offense: C-
The Vols started slow and trudged through the mid-day contest. It was as boring of a shutout, 24-point victory as you’ll ever seen. The Vols were very inefficient, with terrible penalties killing drives, a critical turnover, and an inability to close drives. A sky high advanced metric of yards-per-point hammers this point home.
As the Vols leave their conference tune-ups, there is a major concern about the Vols’ ability to score points against SEC defenses.
Offensive Stat of the Game: 21.3 yards/point
Quarterback: B+
Quarterback Jarrett Guarantano continues his strong start and is the most consistent player on the Vols offense. Guarantano was 12/16 for 168 yards today, easily the most efficient and effective offensive player. He seemed limited, especially in the passing game today. When he was asked to throw the ball, he was largely on target and sharp. We did see Guarantano use his legs more today than he had in the first two games combined, with limited success.
It’s increasingly evident that for Tennessee to break through the win column in conference play, Guarantano will have to become more of a play maker for the Vols. Something must happen to ignite the Tennessee offense.
Running Backs: C
It’s kind of hard to dock a unit that produces 345 yards of rushing in a game. But those 345 yards came on 50 carries. Tennessee was determined not open the play book to wide today and grind out a boring win against a hapless UTEP team. Ty Chandler‘s return was a success. Chandler had the biggest play of the day with an 81-yard touchdown run and tallied 158 yards total. That was offset by Jeremy Banks‘ fumble on the one yard line — one of the many drive killers of the day.
Tim Jordan and Madre London added 153 yards as well. It was a total team effort in the backfield, in what is becoming a position of depth for the Vols. With London and Banks as the short yardage backs, and Jordan and Chandler providing the big play capability, Tennessee’s rushing attack is developing nicely.
Receivers: B
The receivers didn’t put much work on film to grade, at least in the passing game. Jauan Jennings returned to the end zone for the first time in almost two seasons, which should make Vol fans happy. Marquez Callaway showed his reliability with a key fourth down catch in the first quarter. Josh Palmer and Brandon Johnson had a combined six receptions for 115 yards, the bulk of Guarantano’s production through the air.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Vols offensive coaching staff opens up the passing attack against Florida.
Offensive Line: D
Drew Richmond had his worst game as a Vol on Saturday. He’s not quite at Kongo-level disappointment, but Vol fans are starting to lose patience with the heralded recruit out of Memphis. Tennessee had 8 penalties for 65 yards, with Richmond accounting for the bulk of those.
The rest of the line walked through the game like a Friday practice. Again, the Vols were unable to dominant the line of scrimmage against a clearly inferior opponent. Yes, they produced 345 yards rushing, but those numbers don’t tell the story.
The offensive line’s physicality is the single biggest concern for Tennessee heading into conference play.
Defense: A
As with last week, the Vols were playing a clearly inferior opponent. But a shut out is a shut out, no matter who it comes against. The Miners were only able to muster 134 total yards of offense for the entire game.
Defensive Stat of the Game: 0 points.
Defensive Line: A-
Kyle Phillips, Alexis Johnson, and Shy Tuttle continued their strong play on the line. Johnson was second on the team with five tackles. UTEP crept close to 100 yards rushing, but that was on 28 attempts. At less than four yards per attempt, the line was effective at controlling the Miners rushing attack.
Linebackers: A
The best sign from Saturday’s win was a much more aggressive linebacking corps, Jonathan Kongbo being the obvious exception. Daniel Bituli and Will Ignot were outstanding on the day, with 10 total tackles, two TFLs, and one sack. UTEP’s inability to threaten the Tennessee end zone was largely due to the disruptive play of the linebackers.
Coaches often talk about improvement in the early games. No unit has shown more improvement from Game One to Game Three than the linebackers. They’ll need to continue this growth against a brutal upcoming schedule.
Defensive Backs: A-
The young defensive backs had a stand out day as well, although it had more to do with the linebackers and the offensive play calling for the Miners. Bryce Thompson, Baylen Buchanan, and Shawn Shamburger led the way. The Miners only had nine receptions on the day and managed just 39 yards on those nine receptions (4.3 yards per reception).
Special Teams: C
Joe Doyle continued quality punting and Brent Cimaglia made one field goal in addition to eight extra points.
Callaway’s fumble on a punt return was another miscue for the Vols on the day. It’s a special teams mistake like that that can turn a competitive game in conference play the wrong way.
Coaching: C
The offense had a limited play book. Another sluggish start. And the Vols were clearly not motivated to play. A dress rehearsal for the Gators should be better than this.
There’s clear improvement on the defense. That’s expected from a Jeremy Pruitt team. Vols fans are waiting for that improvement from Tyson Helton‘s offense, especially the offensive line.
Looking Ahead
Florida comes into Neyland Stadium next week for what is, as usual, a critical game for the Vols. With no wins in conference play last year, and Georgia, Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina coming up after the Gators, the Vols desperately need to get their first conference win in two seasons next week. The Gators’ 2018 trajectory is similar to the Vols. New coach. Sluggish offense. Disappointing early loss.
One of these teams will use a win to launch forward. Next week’s loser will keep trudging through another disappointing season.
Main Photo:
