Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ 41-21 win over Gamecocks

4. Linebackers were dominant for UT on the inside and outside. 

You could not ask for a more complete game from Tennessee football at linebacker. Everybody came through, and given the expectations of the veterans combined with the youth movement at the beginning of the season, it was finally the game everybody was waiting to see from them. That’s similar to what they saw from wide receivers on the night.

Anyway, Daniel Bituli was the star. We already mentioned the fact that he blocked a punt and recovered it himself for a touchdown that secured the victory for Vol Nation. But he had a complete performance outside of that as well, coming away with 15 tackles, 11 of which were solo and a tackle for a loss. Henry To’o To’o was a great sidekick with eight tackles.

On the outside, Darrell Taylor had one of his legendary games. He finished the game with only four tackles, but the key was him coming away with two sacks. Oh, and Taylor deflected a fourth down pass by South Carolina that kept the Vols in control late. So he was exactly what you would expect an edge rushing playmaker to be.

Deandre Johnson and Kivon Bennett also made some noise on the outside. But the combination of Taylor and Bituli, two senior leaders, was always supposed to be a staple of this defense. It proved to be just that on this night, as the Vols came away with a dominating win thanks to the big plays they made all night.