Tennessee football week 4 stock report: Veteran Vols should step up

Stock down

Returning players everywhere

It was the newcomers who stepped up in Tennessee football’s loss to the Florida Gators Saturday. Madre London and Jeremy Banks scored the two touchdowns. Alontae Taylor forced the one turnover of the game for the Vols’ defense. We already mentioned the kickers, none of whom are returning full-time starters, even if Brent Cimaglia had experience last year.

But what about everybody else? Well, that’s the problem. Outside of maybe the receivers, Kyle Phillips and Alexis Johnson in just the first half, the returning veterans were awful. Returning players on the offensive line caused four of the turnovers and the safety. It was just bad all the way around, and the Vols need more veteran leadership if they are going to get anything going this season.

The coaching staff 

This starts with Tyson Helton’s play-calling Saturday. You can’t blame him for wanting to play a physical style, but it got super predictable. On top of that, the offensive line is clearly not developed enough yet to allow for that. So Tennessee football’s best chance to win Saturday was clearly by airing it out more, and they didn’t take enough chances.

Then you add Jeremy Pruitt’s issues with Quart’e Sapp. I’ve said before I don’t know what happened there. But the fact is that Pruitt does not look good in this situation, and his handling of it afterward doesn’t make anything better. As a result, right now the coaching staff is not looking good. It’s early, but there seems to be some issues arising.