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

By Caleb Calhoun

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 24: Tim Jordan #9 of the Tennessee Volunteers rushes against Joejuan Williams #8 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the first half at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 24: Tim Jordan #9 of the Tennessee Volunteers rushes against Joejuan Williams #8 of the Vanderbilt Commodores during the first half at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 24, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images
Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images /

Offense

Quarterbacks: D-

Jarrett Guarantano played hard all year for Tennessee football. And he probably has a bright future ahead of him. But he was awful Saturday. He didn’t just go 13-of-29 for only 163 yards and an interception. The guy missed numerous easy crossing routes, including key third down passes that were behind Marquez Callaway and Dominick Wood-Anderson at different times. Once you throw in Keller Chryst’s 0-for-4 day at the end, it’s clear that this was a bad game all the way around. The late touchdown pass is the only reason this isn’t an F.

Running backs: B+

I blame Tyson Helton’s play-calling more than the running backs themselves for only generating 115 yards on the ground. Tim Jordan and Ty Chandler only had 12 carries in total, and neither were used in the passing game that much. Taking that into account, the 115 yards look really good. However, it’s only a B+ because 75 of those came on one play. The unit still struggled in other areas, including their roles in pass protection. So because of that and their lack of usage, we can’t give them an A.

Wide receivers/Tight ends: C-

Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings were both banged up, and it was evident. They could not win the typical 50/50 balls they had been winning all season long. Meanwhile, the tight ends struggled again to help with pass protection, which was a major problem. Yes, Jarrett Guarantano didn’t help matters, as he missed on too many throws. But the fact is some of those guys are on the team to help bail him out, and they didn’t bail him out in this game.

Offensive line: C-

Tennessee football is banged up severely on the offensive line, but they still blocked extremely well in the run game. Sure, pass protection was an issue, but as we’ve mentioned, they didn’t have much help there. It was bad enough for us to drop their grade down to a C-, but considering the way they’ve played in other losses this year, that’s actually not too bad. The unit played as hard as it could given the circumstances Saturday.

Overall offensive grade: D

Scoring only 13 points against a bad Vanderbilt Commodores defense is going to warrant this being a D. Now, averaged out, it’s actually in the C range. But that shows how important the quarterback position is. Jarrett Guarantano played poorly enough to hold back the whole offense.

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