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Tennessee football report card in 35-12 win vs. Missouri

By Caleb Calhoun

Tennessee wide receiver Josh Palmer (5) makes a catch over Missouri defensive back Ennis Rakestraw, Jr. (2) during a SEC conference football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Missouri Tigers held at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, October 3, 2020.Kns Ut Football Missouri Bp
Tennessee wide receiver Josh Palmer (5) makes a catch over Missouri defensive back Ennis Rakestraw, Jr. (2) during a SEC conference football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Missouri Tigers held at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, October 3, 2020.Kns Ut Football Missouri Bp /
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Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano (2) leaps over players to convert a 4th down during a SEC conference football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Missouri Tigers held at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, October 3, 2020.Kns Ut Football Missouri Bp
Tennessee quarterback Jarrett Guarantano (2) leaps over players to convert a 4th down during a SEC conference football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Missouri Tigers held at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, October 3, 2020.Kns Ut Football Missouri Bp /

Here are the Tennessee football Volunteers grades in their victory over the Mizzou Tigers.

It’s hard to criticize Tennessee football after they beat a team by more than the Alabama Crimson Tide beat that team a week earlier. Who ever thought that would be the case? Well, it happened, as the Vols dominated the Missouri Tigers 35-12 to move to 2-0 on the year.

There are plenty of reasons for fans to be thrilled with UT’s performance. Jeremy Pruitt’s team won by playing an old-school style of power football that overwhelmed Mizzou’s defense under first-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz.

That physical brand led Tennessee football to over 230 rushing yards, and in many ways, they looked completely out of the Tigers’ league. Seeing such elite, dominating play has opened up the possibility that maybe the program has returned to elite status.

We’ll know more on that later in the year. However, amidst all the positives, not everything about this game was perfect. Rocky Top was only three or four plays from allowing Mizzou to get right back in it and make things interesting.

Now, you can say that this game in general only comes down to three or four plays, but the flow of it matters, and there were certain trends that could have been concerning on Saturday. As we get set to begin grading the Vols for their performance throughout the day, those are some things we’ll have to take into account.

Just like we usually do, we’ll grade all the positions on offense, defense and special teams before closing out with coaching. Coaching will include play-calling of the coordinators and overall decision-making by the staff.

Simply put, everything comes into account, as does the quality of the opponent. So let’s go ahead and break down how things looked on Saturday following Rocky Top’s eighth straight win and sixth straight SEC win. This is our report card for Tennessee football following the Vols’ 35-12 victory over the Missouri Tigers.

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