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Tennessee football report card in 40-13 win at LSU

By Caleb Calhoun

Oct 8, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (11) catches a pass against Tennessee Volunteers defensive back Wesley Walker (13) during the first half at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. (11) catches a pass against Tennessee Volunteers defensive back Wesley Walker (13) during the first half at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /
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Beating a top 25 SEC team by four scores on the road is naturally going to come with a lot of good praise. By every metric possible, this was the best performance of the season for Tennessee football. Sure, the Vols were coming off a bye week, but nobody saw a 40-13 victory at the LSU Tigers on Saturday.

As we get set to break down how each unit performed for the Vols in this game, it’s important to note that LSU helped out with lots of mistakes. However, at the same time, the Vols had numerous units perform incredibly well, and they all deserve shoutouts in this one.

As usual, we’ll break down the units on offense, defense and special teams before closing with coaching, and we’ll have two separate pages for the offense. Was there any unit that wasn’t elite?Let’s find out, starting with the backfield in our report card for Tennessee football on the heels of their win at LSU.

Here are Tennessee football’s grades in the Volunteers’ performance at Louisiana State.

Oct 8, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; Tennessee Volunteers running back Jabari Small (2) is tackled by LSU Tigers cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse (24) during the first half at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 8, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; Tennessee Volunteers running back Jabari Small (2) is tackled by LSU Tigers cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse (24) during the first half at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /

Offensive grades part I

Quarterback: A

Hendon Hooker fumbled the ball twice and missed a couple throws, which is the only reason this isn’t an A+. However, when you complete 17-of-27 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns, throw a perfect touchdown pass for 45 yards and gain 56 yards on the ground, you did more than enough to earn an A for your performance.

Running back: A

Jabari Small had 22 carries for 127 yards and two touchdowns while adding a three-yard reception. Jaylen Wright had 12 carries for 59 yards. Even Dylan Sampson got in on the action, carrying the ball twice for 14 yards. UT’s running backs in the totality went over 200 yards.

Why then, is this not an A+? Well, Sampson missed a block that resulted in one of the strip-sacks on Hooker, and although he recovered the fumble and made a nice play on it, pass-blocking is still crucial for running backs. As a result, this unit for Tennessee football gets a standard A, but it was still pretty elite.

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