Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ 42-17 win at Vanderbilt

3. The rushing attack was unstoppable.

We discussed in the opening slide the rash of injuries suffered by the Vanderbilt Commodores. That did stand out on the offensive line, which allowed for the Vols to generate an elite pass rush. However, it was even a bigger deal on the defensive line, where they had three starters out and were severely limited.

As a result, Tennessee football was able to torch Vandy on the ground for the third straight year. The Vols were able to do it even in their 2018 loss, but Tyson Helton didn’t run it enough. Last year, Eric Gray set a UT freshman record with 246 yards and three touchdowns while adding an SEC freshman record with a 94-yard touchdown run.

In this game, Gray was still elite, as he had 13 carries for 74 yards. However, Ty Chandler was a bigger star. He had 9 carries for 61 yards and a touchdown, and Jabari Small added 6 carries for 48 yards. Dee Beckwith had 2 carries for 24 yards.

Take all that into account, and the Vols had 212 yards on the ground for the day, averaging 5.6 yards per carry. That includes the three times they were sacked that counted against their rushing average, showing how dominant they were.