Beyond Marquez Callaway, we at least finally saw the deep threat Dominick Wood-Anderson could be. Tennessee football did not use the 6’4″ 257-pound senior enough last year despite the fact that he was a four-star junior college transfer known for his receiving abilities and highly coveted by Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide.
It was also expected that Jim Chaney would use him a good bit this year. Against the Georgia State Panthers, that’s exactly what he did. In fact, given the mismatches and the game getting close, Chaney deserves criticism for not giving Wood-Anderson the ball enough. He inexplicably had Austin Pope in there at times.
Still, Wood-Anderson was effective. The key moment came after Deandre Johnson helped to force that Dan Ellington fumble. On the next play, Jarrett Guarantano hit Wood-Anderson for a 54-yard pass, and it almost went for a touchdown. But Wood-Anderson lost his balance, which resulted in him going out of bounds and the Vols only getting a field goal on that drive.
For the day, Wood-Anderson had three receptions for 79 yards with that long catch being the big play. Chaney and Jeremy Pruitt should have gone to him way more in the game, but to be fair to them, there were issues with pass protection that limited what they could do. The veteran tight end still did enough to get on our list for this game.