Tennessee football report card in 30-17 loss at Auburn

This is how position units performed in the Tennessee football Volunteers’ loss at Auburn.

In a 30-17 loss on the road to the Auburn Tigers, Tennessee football had lots of position units do their part. You don’t build a 10-0 lead without doing something right, and the Vols definitely did something right. After all, they outgained Auburn, controlled time of possession and didn’t lose the turnover battle.

UT’s loss came down to a just a couple of key plays that were caused by specific units. As we get set to deliver our report card for the position units, those who had nothing to do with those key mistakes are completely off the hook, and they’ll get a pretty good grade.

The ones who did make mistakes may avoid a horrendous grade. It just depends on how everything played out. Let’s go ahead and dive in. We’ll split our offensive grades into two slides and then have one slide for defense, special teams and coaching each. This is our breakdown for how different Tennessee football position units performed, starting with the backfield.

Offensive grades part 1

Quarterback: C-

Jarrett Guarantano made a bad mistake on that pick-six in the red zone. If we’re being honest, though, that’s the only bad play made by the quarterbacks all day. As the starter, Guarantano was still 15-of-23 for 156 yards, and Harrison Bailey came in and went seven-of-10 for 86 yards. Add in Guarantano’s touchdown run, and that mistake just docs this grade to average.

Running back: A-

Ty Chandler and Eric Gray each messed up on one key pass block. That’s why this unit didn’t get an A+. However, Gray led Tennessee football in rushing with 22 carries for 173 yards and a touchdown, and he also led in receiving with three catches for 49 yards. Chandler added 40 yards on the ground and 37 through the air, so these two gained 299 of the team’s 464 total yards.