Tennessee football report card: Grading the Vols in 17-13 Kentucky win
Coaching
Offensive play-calling: B-
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Jim Chaney made good use of his wide receivers. He called the right plays to make sure Tennessee football got the lead. However, he did not commit to the run game enough, and he made the mistake of starting Brian Maurer over Jarrett Guarantano. So his play-calling wasn’t perfect, and that’s why we have to give him a barely above-average grade.
Defensive play-calling: A+
Sure, they allowed a touchdown on the opening drive, but that had nothing to do with Derrick Ansley’s play-calling. He was perfect all night, especially on that goal-line stand late in the game, which was a third straight fourth down stop. Ansley continues to look more and more like a great defensive coordinator hire, and this was once again a great performance by him.
Overall coaching grade: B+
The mistake of starting Maurer over Guarantano was a bit of an issue, but Jeremy Pruitt had his kids ready and focused the whole game. That was hard to do, as unlike last year, they are clearly better at handling success. And they also didn’t panic when falling behind 13-0 on the road, which was a huge deal.
Next. Five takeaways from Vols' 17-13 win vs. Kentucky. dark
As a result, Pruitt just missed getting an A grade. He and his staff did a great job keeping his team resilient and making sure they withstood the issues that came their way. Tennessee football has consistently been out-coaching opponents in recent weeks while also out-playing them, and that’s worthy of bringing up. It happened again on Saturday.