Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols 31-19 loss to Florida

4. Pass protection was horrendous.

It’s clear whose pass rush won the day. For all the good Harrison Bailey and J.T. Shrout did, they were under a ton of pressure. Tennessee football’s protection for its young quarterbacks was awful against an elite Florida Gators defense, and it showed.

The Vols allowed six sacks on the day, all to different people. Darnell Wright continued to struggle blocking on the outside, but a big issue was a change at center. Brandon Kennedy could not go in this game, so the Vols had to turn to Cooper Mays and Jerome Carvin to snap the ball, and the results were often disastrous.

Outside of the offensive line, though, the tight ends and running backs could do a better job protecting the quarterbacks as well. For all of his exploits with the ball in his hand, Eric Gray continues to miss on blocks. He allowed two sacks in this game simply due to his failure to pick up blitzes, a problem that has to be corrected.

In the second half, there was an intentional grounding penalty that knocked UT out of field goal range. A sack on the following drive did the same thing. If those two drives ended in field goals, UT could have been a little more in contention late.