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Tennessee football report card: Grading the Vols in 34-3 Florida loss

By Caleb Calhoun

GAINESVILLE, FL- SEPTEMBER 21: Lamical Perine #2 of the Florida Gators rushes against Jaylen McCollough #22 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 21, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
GAINESVILLE, FL- SEPTEMBER 21: Lamical Perine #2 of the Florida Gators rushes against Jaylen McCollough #22 of the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half of the game at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on September 21, 2019 in Gainesville, Florida. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images /

Offense

Quarterbacks: F

Jarrett Guarantano had an interception that wasn’t his fault, as he threw a touchdown pass-caliber ball. Meanwhile, Brian Maurer did drive Tennessee football into field goal range once. Outside of that, though, this unit was awful. The two combined to complete 14-of-28 passes for 151 yards and three interceptions. Guarantano missed a sure touchdown to Dominick Wood-Anderson. It was obviously bad enough for Jeremy Pruitt to bench him in favor of Maurer only to later bench Maurer. The unit was just bad.

Running backs: C-

Eric Gray had a fumble that killed one drive and missed a block that resulted in a sure touchdown pass being batted down. Ty Chandler got very little in open space. However, Gray, Ty Chandler and Tim Jordan combined for 77 yards on 19 carries, so their play wasn’t horrendous. They had very little blocking. It was just those key mistakes that made things a killer.

Wide receivers/Tight ends: C-

Similar to the running backs, the play here wasn’t horrendous. Austin Pope had a catch, and he and Dominick Wood-Anderson each should have had touchdown receptions but didn’t do to other people’s mistakes. The issue was Jauan Jennings dropping a pass in the end zone that was later intercepted. It was a killer and results in this being a C- grade.

Offensive line: D-

Protection for the quarterbacks and the run blocking was bad all game. Too many passes were batted down, the Vols could not establish anything on the ground, and they gave up four sacks. Add in the penalty by K’Rojhn Calbert to kill one drive, and you had the perfect storm of poor play by this unit against a very good defensive front.

Overall offensive grade: D-

Perhaps this should have been an F. What else can you say about gaining fewer than 300 yards and not scoring a touchdown? Well, there was ball movement at times, so we’ll give it a D- just for that. But make no mistake, the play was horrible throughout the day.

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