Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 17-13 win over Kentucky

2. Front seven was not locked in.

Sure, they made the key fourth down stop at the end. But the Vols’ front seven had major issues in this game, and you wonder if it goes back to the lack of focus in practice that Jeremy Pruitt lamented midway through the week.

The Kentucky Wildcats could not throw the ball. Everybody knew that coming in. They only threw it seven times and completed four passes while throwing an interception. Anybody should have been able to handle that.

But with Lynn Bowden Jr. at quarterback, they were still a threat. Bowden this team ran for over 300 yards and averaged nearly five yards a carry. Bowden went for over 100 yards, and Christopher Rodriguez Jr. had 81 yards.

Add in the 102 yards combined from Asim Rose and Kavosiey Smoke, and Mark Stoops nearly pulled off winning this game despite no passing attack. That could have ended up being disastrous for Tennessee football.

Bowden helped to engineer a touchdown on the opening drive, and that nearly cost the Vols. Then he got past the 50 three times in the second half. Despite getting the stops, UT never should have let it get to that point.

There’s no denying that it was just a major indictment against the front seven. The defensive tackles did not consistently get a push, and the defensive ends and linebackers were caught off-guard on too many trick plays. Pruitt needs to refocus his team heading into the bye week.