Tennessee football 2018 report card: Grading the Vols on the whole season

KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10: Ty Chandler #8 of the Tennessee Volunteers takes a hand off from Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half of the game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 24-7. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 10: Ty Chandler #8 of the Tennessee Volunteers takes a hand off from Jarrett Guarantano #2 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half of the game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on November 10, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennessee won the game 24-7. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images /

Defense

Defensive line: B

This was the best unit on the entire Tennessee football team when it came to offense or defense. The Vols had three seniors starting here in Alexis Johnson Jr., Shy Tuttle and Kyle Phillips, and it showed. Those three guys actually get an A. The problem is that the unit was not deep, and so there were too many struggles late in games. It got so bad that we had no choice but to drop the overall grade to a B. Perhaps it will get better in the future, but it was an issue here.

Linebackers: B-

Darrell Taylor, Daniel Bituli and Darrin Kirkland Jr. all had great games at different times. That was enough to get this grade above average. But they all also had extremely quiet games, and the unit could never put it together. The season-ending injury to Jonathan Kongbo on the other side and not a lot of help after those three also created a depth issue. You have to figure Jeremy Pruitt will improve this over time, especially with everybody back and depth beginning to build. But for this year, it was just barely above average.

Secondary: C+

Honestly, when you consider the fact that the secondary lost everybody at cornerback, a C isn’t so bad. However, unlike the other units, there were issues with the starting lineup, not just the backups. Jeremy Pruitt could never quite get consistency from the veterans at safety, and there were general freshman growing pains at quarterback with Bryce Thompson and Alontae Taylor. The 3-4 transition is tough. This is another group that should be better in a year, and given everything it was dealing with, it’s hard to really blame them for the struggles. Yeah, they were a weakness, but we expected them to be one.

Overall 2018 defensive grade: B-

It’s pretty clear that Tennessee football had a significantly better defense than offense. The unit was nearly in the Top 50, indicating a just above average group, and the only four games in which they were embarrassed were against the West Virginia Mountaineers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Missouri Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores. Depth was the only problem here, and that will get fixed.