Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ 35-13 loss at Alabama

2. Trenches continue to improve.

They only averaged three yards a play on the ground while allowing three sacks, and they failed to score a touchdown after running it four straight times inside the five-yard line. But Tennessee football is clearly improving in thew trenches, and there’s no way to ignore that.

Tim Jordan had 94 yards on 17 carries, and the running backs altogether averaged over five yards a carry. Jordan’s emergence combined with Ty Chandler and Eric Gray making enough plays are worthy of praise.

After his struggles to get back into shape, Trey Smith is becoming an elite run blocker once again. Brian Griese kept noting that the Vols should be running behind him because of how well he was playing, and there was no way to deny that.

Meanwhile, the defensive line has been improving as well. After not getting a push all year, the unit was able to generate enough of a push to rack up two sacks for the defense, including one coming from Greg Emerson himself. Emerseon and Darel Middleton both had tackles for a loss. So both are beginning to step up in a more notable way.

There are still issues, particularly with the freshmen blocking on the outside, but the development should be encouraging for all of Vol Nation. It’s a big reason they could stay in the game after a targeting penalty knocked out Daniel Bituli, their best defender. Despite the offensive and defensive lines being thin in terms of depth, the talent is building. That’s worthy of praise.