Tennessee football blame pie: Who’s most responsible for Vols 1-3 start?

5. Inside linebackers: 5 percent

Yes, we split both members of Tennessee football’s back seven into five percent each for our first round of the blame game. Starting with the inside linebackers, they get blame for how they played in the opener against the Georgia State Panthers. With Daniel Bituli out, this team was disastrous at containing a mobile quarterback in Dan Ellington, and Shawn Elliott took advantage.

The only reason we have this group at five percent is because it got better over time. Henry To’oTo’o, a true freshman, was the guy calling plays in the opener. A week later, there were still issues against the BYU Cougars, but it got significantly better. Ever since Bituli returned, meanwhile, there have been no problems. That’s the good news for this unit.

Secondary: 5 percent

Unlike the inside linebackers, the Vols have not had a game in which they looked disastrous in the secondary. However, their problem has been a couple of specific plays each game that cost their defense, and it was enough to give this unit some of the blame. We obviously start with the Georgia State game. There, the unit failed to contain Ellington on a couple of key plays.

Then, most notably, there was the busted coverage against BYU that set up the game-tying field goal to begin with. If Alontae Taylor doesn’t get burned while Nigel Warrior takes a bad angle, that doesn’t happen, and UT wins the game. Against the Florida Gators, the unit was not horrible, but Kyle Trask got them out of position twice on the opening drive. Again, small mistakes killed them.