Tennessee football: Weekly SEC awards should put one concern to rest

Whenever they have beaten a Power Five team this year, Tennessee football has had two players win weekly SEC awards the following Monday. It happened again on the league’s list of weekly awards this week after their 40-13 win at the LSU Tigers, although one may have been by default.

Chase McGrath was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after making four field goals, and Byron Young was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week after two and a half sacks. It’s the first time the Vols beat a Power Five team in which Hendon Hooker wasn’t named SEC Offensive Player of the Week.

However, Young is the second player, following Hooker, to be recognized by the SEC twice. That should put to rest any concern fans may have had about Tennessee football’s star edge rusher. He’s been doing fine all year and lived up to his hype again Saturday.

Heading into the game, there were concerns that Young wasn’t making the impact everybody expected him to. He only had one sack up to that point and just two tackles for a loss. However, few analysts were paying attention to his opponents.

Of the two Power Five foes UT played to that point, one of them, the Florida Gators, is pretty good at avoiding sacks. They have only allowed four on the year, and containment of Anthony Richardson rather than sacks was the focus of the front seven.

Because of that, Young was naturally not going to come away with many sacks. However, the Pittsburgh Panthers run a pro-style offense with a drop-back passer, and LSU has mobile quarterback who has issues with pocket presence.

As a result, those were the two major games in which Banks was always going to turn Young loose, and Young was SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week both times. Who cares if he didn’t do much against the Ball State Cardinals and Akron Zips? There was no reason to use him that much in those games.

When Tennessee football needed Young, and when the opportunities presented themselves, he delivered. Last week’s performance proved he’s still the same guy he was last year, and he’s about to have quite a few more chances to wreak havoc.

Chase McGrath’s first weekly SEC award

It’s actually ironic that McGrath won the special teams award, not because he didn’t deserve it but because the Vols’ two biggest special teams plays on Saturday didn’t involve him. One was on a recovered kickoff, and Paxton Brooks is a kickoff specialist. The other was a 58-yard punt return by Dee Williams.

Honestly, when you consider the fact that Brooks was the one who did that kickoff and the fact that he had two punts, one of which pinned LSU inside the two-yard line and another of which went 49 yards, he had a case for SEC Special Teams Player of the Week. McGrath missing a field goal furthers that notion.

Still, that miss by McGrath was from 50 yards out. He is still perfect on extra points and field goals inside 40 on the year, which is what you want out of your college kicker. Overall, Tennessee football has a big advantage with special teams. They also proved to have one with Young.