Tennessee football’s top five performers in 31-26 loss to Ole Miss
Defensive lineman. Senior. 1. Scouting Report. player. 839. Pick Analysis. Matthew Butler
2 sacks
We mentioned earlier how well Tennessee football’s defensive line played all night. Byron Young, Tyler Baron, Caleb Tremblay, Ja’Quain Blakely and Roman Harrison all generated an elite pass rush. On the inside, LaTrell Bumphus had two quarterback hurries, and Omari Thomas forced a safety. Da’Jon Terry was also in on a few plays.
The catalyst for all of these guys, though, was Matthew Butler. Throughout the night, Butler was huge in forcing errant throws by Matt Corral and at least stopping the Ole Miss running backs. Again, he’s not at fault for Corral’s runs. That rests with the linebackers.
Butler was in on what should have been the play of the game. Corral was stopped on a fourth down play, and he was the one who got there for the sack. It should have been a forced fumble that Tyler Baron recovered and ran for a touchdown, but the refs blew it dead.
dark. Next. Five takeaways from Vols' 31-26 loss to Ole Miss
Even with that play blown dead, though, Butler still got the fourth down stop. He has consistently been Tennessee football’s best defensive lineman throughout the year, and he showed it once again Saturday night. Ole Miss’ offense was much more out of sync than it usually is, and nobody is more responsible for that than Butler. As a result, he is the player of the game.