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Tennessee football report card: Grading the Vols in their loss at Georgia

By Caleb Calhoun

ATHENS, GA - SEPTEMBER 29: Brian Herrien #35 of the Georgia Bulldogs is tackled by Alontae Taylor #6, Jonathan Kongbo #99, and Alexis Johnson, Jr. #98 of the Tennessee Volunteers on September 29, 2018 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - SEPTEMBER 29: Brian Herrien #35 of the Georgia Bulldogs is tackled by Alontae Taylor #6, Jonathan Kongbo #99, and Alexis Johnson, Jr. #98 of the Tennessee Volunteers on September 29, 2018 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images /

Tennessee football had many positives in its 38-12 loss to the UGA Bulldogs Saturday. Here are the Volunteers grades from their play at the Dawgs in Athens.

A third loss by exactly 26 points would not seem to signify any sort of improvement, especially when those are the only three games you’ve played against Power Five opponents. But it was a different story for Tennessee football after the Vols faced the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday.

Despite suffering the blowout loss, UT played hard and showed signs of life in the second half. The play of specific units helped the Vols make this game interesting, which is something that nobody saw coming against Kirby Smart’s team Saturday.

Jeremy Pruitt’s guys clearly have a lot of fight in them, even if they make key mistakes and fluke plays work against them. That showed more than ever for Tennessee football on Saturday en route to their 2-3 record. It’s crazy to think we’re saying this after a 38-12 loss.

Unfortunately for the Vols, an E for Effort does not cut it in our grades. As we get set to dish out our report card for Tennessee’s final game before its bye week, we’re going to analyze how every unit performed, and it’s not just going to be based on their effort.

Execution matters in this sport. So we will focus on that. To be fair, we will also take into account the depth and the challenges each specific unit faced based on their match-ups with the Dawgs Saturday afternoon.

When you break that down, some groups played significantly better than others. But tat the same time, there were still some major disappointments that have got to be addressed. A lot of what happened Saturday was due to Georgia playing ugly than the Vols showing something impressive.

So which groups were most responsible for making Saturday’s game interesting during a brief period in the fourth quarter? Who is responsible for keeping it out of reach? Find out here with our Tennessee football report card following the Vols’ loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.

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