Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 31-27 win at South Carolina

4. Pass rush showed promise without Darrell Taylor. 

Jeremy Pruitt lamented his lack of pass rush earlier in the offseason, but at least on this night, it didn’t show to be too much of an issue. Tennessee football appears to have a few solid players on hand to fill the void that Darell Taylor left, and Derrick Ansley did a great job dialing up different blitz packages with those players throughout the night.

The Vols came away with four sacks and another four hurries in the game. They got pressure on Collin Hill in all obvious passing downs, and it made a huge difference in key moments. Although they couldn’t stop the quick slants, Hill never really had the chance to make any downfield throws that took time to develop, as the Vols were always getting to him before them.

Deandre Johnson, the senior edge rusher, led the way with two and a half sacks. He also brought the pressure that caused the pick-six to Henry To’o To’o, and he clearly looked like the heir apparent to Taylor. Beyond Johnson, though, Doneiko Slaughter actually came up with a sack in the secondary, somewhat offsetting his issues in coverage, and Kivon Bennett had half a sack.

So the rush was solid, and the Vols had nine tackles for a loss overall from nine different players. Tyler Baron, a freshman, got in on the action with two tackles for a loss and proved he could have a bright future, as he brought some pressure himself.