Tennessee football: Vols have improved, even if it was against Chattanooga

Although there’s not much for Tennessee football to brag about an a 45-0 win over an FCS school, the Volunteers clearly improved against the Mocs.

Nobody ever takes a blowout win over an FCS team seriously. But Tennessee football is in a very unique situation. After an 0-2 start that included a loss to the Georgia State Panthers, who went 2-10 in the Sun Belt last year, and a loss to the BYU Cougars, the Vols were going to take any win in Jeremy Pruitt’s second season.

That it came against a Chattanooga Mocs team a week removed from a loss to Jacksonville State is irrelevant. But it does beg the question: Did UT improve? And the answer is a resounding yes, no matter who it was against.

For starters, don’t forget that Tennessee football was down 38-23 to Georgia State with 10 seconds left before losing 38-30. Meanwhile, they were up on Chattanooga 45-0 the whole fourth quarter. Is a Sun Belt team that went 2-10 last year really 60 points better than Chattanooga? That’s the surface-level reason for believing in their improvement.

Also, the Vols were already clearly trending upward, evidenced by their much closer performance against BYU, a much better team than Georgia State. Simply put, those things alone show Pruitt has the team getting better on a week-to-week basis.

But then there are things on the field that show they were better. The inside linebackers specifically showed it. Two weeks ago, they were consistently out of position and could not stop Dan Ellington. That was Henry To’oTo’o’s first game starting. And Jeremy Banks still looked like he should be playing running back.

In this game, To’oTo’o had a tackle for a loss and a pass defended. Meanwhile, Banks came away with three tackles and two interceptions. And this team is objectively better with Daniel Bituli back anyway, so yes, the linebackers are getting better. It doesn’t matter who they are playing.

Meanwhile, when it comes to Banks’s interceptions, that’s another huge part of this game. Tennessee football forced five turnovers and blocked a punt. Darrell Taylor’s recovered fumble and the blocked punt has more to do with the opponent being Chattanooga than the Vols improving.

However, the defense has been unable to cash in on opportunities for interceptions throughout the season until today. And when the ball is in that position, it’s more on Tennessee football than their opponents.

Well, in addition to Banks’s interceptions, Nigel Warrior and Kenney Solomon each came down one. So they are finally taking advantage of opponents’ mistakes in the passing game, and that is a major sign of improvement.

When it comes to the passing game on offense, there will be a time and a place to critique Jarrett Guarantano. He certainly got away with a late decision on his touchdown pass to Cedric Tillman, and that pass would have been intercepted against an FBS school. His first pass would have been picked as well. And his touchdown pass to Marquez Callaway was the easiest pass ever.

Still, that’s three passes. Guarantano’s other five included a touchdown pass, and they were all completed. Two of them came with him avoiding pressure in the pocket and were very accurate throws. So say what you want, but he clearly showed improvement as well.

Simply put, Tennessee football is nowhere near where it needs to be. But the Vols are slowly getting better by the week, and that is certainly an encouraging sign for them. Getting better while being able to face the Chattanooga Mocs was the perfect recipe for them to get their first win of the season and for them to do it in blowout fashion.