- Convert 4th and 2 at the 13 and it gets ugly quick — Tennessee’s defense had given the Vols a great start with Theo Jackson’s 55 yard pick 6 to make it 7-0. Velus Jones along with a great block from Jimmy Holiday seemed to add to the ease of the afternoon with a 50 yard punt return to set Tennessee up at the Vanderbilt 21, but the Vols couldn’t make a first down after failing on a 3rd and 4 run and a 4th and 2 run giving the ‘Dores the ball at their 13. The offensive line just didn’t move people well enough. Score there to make it 14-0 and its might have been a really ugly day really quickly for Vanderbilt.
2. The growth of Garner’s group — I admit I’m pretty partial to Rodney Garner. We have always enjoyed dealing with each other going back to when he was in Knoxville in 1996. I said when he was hired here by Josh Heupel that he was a better position coach than he’s ever been given credit for being because of his recruiting success.
But Garner has had a really good year coaching the defensive line and it’s a group of guys who are continuing to get better. Omari Thomas has shown up more each week and D.J. Terry is getting better as well. Terry had three tackles against Vanderbilt and he had 4 against South Alabama. Byron Young continues to improve weekly.
Bryson Eason played 9 snaps Saturday. His PFF grade wasn’t very good, but if you watch Eason on replay he moved the line of scrimmage. He problem was he’s not fast enough to play outside as an end. Watch him move inside this off-season and I bet he helped the defensive front next year. For a group that was a million miles away from being productive in the spring they just keep getting better. They were far from perfect on Saturday and Garner will tell you as a group they didn’t play well, but you can see individuals who just continue to improve from guys like Kurott Garland to Roman Harrison and more.
3. Hooker played better than I thought —Because of being spoiled with big play after big play, it felt like Hendon Hooker was a bit off on Saturday. Upon rewatch, he actually played pretty dang well. Hooker’s feet erased mistakes up front. He wasn’t sacked but that wasn’t because of a lack of pressure. He was just good with his feet making people miss and helping out his offensive line. The post to Tillman that Cedric couldn’t haul in was over thrown because Hooker had pressure in his face. Hooker missed Velus Jones on an out route at the goal line and threw a really bad ball to Jacob Warren where he didn’t see the linebacker, but he was really good throwing the ball in the third quarter and his legs were good against a decent pass rush. Oh, and Hooker had a terrific check down to Princeton Fant for a 23 yard gain.
Like I said, I thought he was off Saturday but he was better than I thought upon rewatch.
4. This just in — Tennessee stymied a mobile qb — This probably should be the number one observation, but the Vols never let Mike Wright get going with his legs. Wright only had 11 yards on 4 designed runs. He had 15 yards on 5 scrambles. Tennessee’s outside contain was solid for the most part all day and they never game him big chunk scramble yards. Admittedly he’s not as mobile as I expected him to be but Tennessee seemed to be in better gap responsibility in pass rush situations. Solid day defending a guy who’s had some success scrambling around.
5. Perimeter blocking doesn’t get enough credit — Princeton Fant missed a kick out block on the first drive, but Fant on multiple other occasions blocked the edge springing runs and Velus Jones was terrific on Cedric Tillman’s 46 yard TD pass to open the second half. I mean Jones was fabulous. All season long the Vol receivers and tight ends have blocked well on the perimeter. That’s how big plays happen a lot of times. It’s how it happened at Kentucky and it got Tillman another touchdown Saturday. It’s a sign of a team that’s completely in it for each other when guys are blocking that way down field and out of the edge.
6. Banks in the box — Jeremy Banks is a throw back linebacker. Now, let me say the personal foul penalty on him was a crap call. Banks at times this fall has been a bonehead and had stupid penalties but that was a bad call. Banks was stumbling and there was no malicious intent there at all.
Now as for his play, the Memphis native had another double digit tackle day with 12 and now has 108 on the season. He is a really nice in the box linebacker. Downhill in the run game or attacking the quarterback.
Banks has struggles playing in space particularly in pass coverage. Tim Banks has done a nice job adjusting things defensively and getting Banks to play more forward and sideline to sideline chasing the football. That’s where he’s at his best and why he has double digit tackle totals in 5 of the last sic games.
7. Nice feeling —Vols win by 24, never any doubt and weren’t very sharp — Tennessee didn’t have a dud game, but the Vols weren’t razor sharp either on offense or defense yet the game was never in down. Vanderbilt played keep away and Tennessee milked the clock in the 4th as the Vols played their shortest game of the year 3:07. It wasn’t the electric start offensively. Defensively they couldn’t get off he field on fourth down for the second straight week, yet Vanderbilt never had a chance to win. Certainly a nice feeling for Vol fans knowing that the Commodores were never a threat to even make the game interesting much less win it.
8. Run game is slowing down for Jaylen Wright — Give the freshman some credit. He was a bit banged up and didn’t play in four of five games in the middle of the year (Florida, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Alabama). He was healthy enough to play in a couple of those but he wasn’t called on. He never hung his head and he just kept working. His pass protection at Kentucky was awful but he ran well with 50 yards on 7 carries. Against South Alabama he had 83 yards and against Vanderbilt he had his first 100 yard game.
The difference is Wright’s decision making. Early in the year, Wright wanted to be a high school hero bouncing everything for a big play. Down the stretch of the season he’s just trying to maximize each run and not look for the home run and it’s paying off. The other thing is that Wright is running lower and “behind his pads” better. The result is yards after contact. In the last two games, Wright has 89 yards after contact. He had 100 yards after contact total in his first six games.
Nice to see his development down the stretch of the season here as he’s run more physical.
9. Burrell still getting picked on — South Alabama threw it 4 times at Burrell and they had 4 completions for 105 yards on those attempts. Vanderbilt went at Burrell as well.
Burrell struggled early but got a bit better. Vanderbilt threw it at Burrell 9 times and had 5 completions for 60 yards.
They threw it at Theo Jackson just 3 times and it netted 1 completion for 4 yards. Alontae Taylor had 3 balls come his way and it netted Vanderbilt 1 completion for just 2 yards.
10. Tip of the cap — Finally, I know I have mentioned it a bunch but you can’t say enough good things about the seniors. Seeing Alontae Taylor in tears going through the T for a final time and seeing Ja’Quain Blakely reluctantly walking off the field for a final time was just another reminder of the investment this group has made to Tennessee for 4-5 and in some cases 6 years.
It hasn’t always been fun, easy or enjoyable. They haven’t always been easy to watch. But that group is the true definition of the word commitment and they should be remembered very fondly by Vol fans despite not having “great” success.
Josh Heupel said it best that group will be successful in life beyond football.
