Tennessee football report card: Grading the Vols in their loss to WVU

Special Teams

Place-Kicking: B

Tennessee football did have a kickoff for a touchback with Paxton Brooks, one more go to the end zone and another go to the two-yard line. Meanwhile, the Vols also nailed two extra points with Brent Cimaglia. That was all the place-kicking game gave on Saturday, so it wasn’t anything impressive. But it wasn’t bad either, so we settled and gave it a B.

Punting: B+

Joe Doyle was the surprise punter in the game. As a walk-on freshman, he wasn’t bad, punting six times for an average of 38 yards a game. But he did nail three punts inside the 15-yard line, and three of his went over 40 yards. So part of the low average was due to where he punted from, and that’s why he gets a B+.

Return Game: C

Tennessee football was elite in this area last year. But on Saturday, they averaged under 20 yards a kick return using both Nigel Warrior and Ty Chandler, and they also only had one punt return, which Marquez Callaway got six yards on. So there was nothing special in this area. On top of that, the coverage struggled on kickoffs. They allowed a kick return from the end zone to the 32-yard line. The punt coverage was great, but it wasn’t enough for this to avoid criticism.

Overall special teams grade: B-

The Vols didn’t do anything special on special teams, and they could have used some spark plays here. However, the unit didn’t really do anything to lose the game. As a result, we give them a B- overall. Perhaps they could improve in the future.