All for Tennessee
Fansided

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) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
3 of 5
Next
Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images
Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images /

Defense

Defensive line: B+

I’m not blaming this one on the defensive line at all. Shy Tuttle was getting a push the entire night. Alexis Johnson came away with two sacks. Kyle Phillips had a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry. Vanderbilt averaged fewer than two and a half yards a carry on the ground. Tennessee football actually won the battle in the trenches, and that’s what’s so shocking about this blowout. This unit isn’t very deep yet, and all of these guys are seniors, which is a problem going forward. But through all the issues elsewhere, they can be proud of how they played in their final game in orange.

Linebackers: C-

Darrell Taylor was flawless on the outside in rushing the passer and stopping the run. His play was A+ worthy. Everybody else was so bad, though, that the overall grade is a C-. Daniel Bituli and Darrin Kirkland Jr. racked up stats, but they were horrible when it came to open field tackling. Derek Mason’s staff caught the Vols linebackers off guard so many times with screens and shovel passes. There were at least three third down conversions in which the Vols had a stop but a Vanderbilt player made a play to elude a linebacker’s tackle. As a result, the unit gets a C-.

Secondary: D-

The only real surprise is why these guys didn’t get an F. Jeremy Pruitt has a ton of work to do with this unit in the offseason, as they let Kyle Shurmur torch them again. It’s the third straight year the Vols have let that happen. The run defense was solid. But when you allow your opponent to complete 31-of-35 passes for 367 yards and three touchdowns, you had a horrendous day. That was the case here. We allowed them to avoid an F because they did get three stops early in the second half and then had no help from the offense. That was a huge problem.

Overall defensive grade: D+

Tennessee football’s defense was pretty bad most of the night. So they get a D+ for their performance. We gave them a bit of a better grade than the offense, though, because they did their part early in the second half to keep the Vols in the game. The offense, meanwhile, failed to deliver.

Home/Vols Football