Tennessee football Smokey points: Top five Vols in 17-13 Kentucky win

It was difficult to determine which defensive lineman deserved the most credit for Tennessee football. Overall, the unit wasn’t great, particularly at getting a push up front. But there were still  key plays up front. Darel Middleton blocked an extra point that made a huge difference. Matthew Butler had a fourth down sack.

However, there was a struggle to win the line of scrimmage in the middle the whole game, and Butler made a couple of crucial mistakes. So the big plays LaTrell Bumphus made without the errors forced us to put him on this list over Middleton and Butler. And the fact of the matter is there is no debate that Bumphus deserves a shoutout for what he did Saturday night in Lexington.

For the game, Bumphus had four solo tackles and five overall. He had two tackles for a loss and was the only player to force multiple negative plays by Kentucky. Bumphus made one key tackle for no gain to bring up the fourth down where Butler got a sack. Then he brought up a 3rd and 15 with a tackle for an eight-yard loss on the next drive in which the Vols got a fourth down stop.

The Vols should have done it more against the Wildcats given the fact that they could not throw the ball with Lynn Bowden Jr., but Bumphus did a better job of it than most everybody else. So he earned a spot on this list.