Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 30-7 win vs. UAB

2. Pash rush was superb for UT.

Heading into the game, the UAB Blazers had only allowed five sacks on the season. But they gave up three to Tennessee football on the night, including one to Darrell Taylor, one to Aubrey Solomon and one to Shawn Shamburger. That was an amazing performance and certainly qualifies as one major takeaway for this team.

The sacks alone weren’t fully reflective of the rush. Taylor was in Tyler Johnston III’s face all night, as was the rest of the front seven, and it’s a big reason for two of the turnovers. Darel Middleton’s recovered fumble was off of that, and one of Thompson’s interceptions was due to a deflection from the pass rush.

Derrick Ansley did a superb job dialing up blitz packages all night to frustrate the Blazers. And, similar to the first takeaway, the book was clear. Despite allowing five sacks on the year, UAB had allowed three in their one loss to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

It’s worth noting that former Vol offensive coordinator Tyson Helton is WKU’s head coach. So he and Jeremy Pruitt may have had similar ideas and even shared them about how to win, although Pruitt’s connections to Bill Clark from high school coaching days could also help.

Anyway, the pass rush was a huge reason the Vols were pitching a shutout until just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, when they called off the dogs. And it deserves as much of a shoutout as Thompson and the turnovers themselves.