As a reminder, this is the PFF grading scale.
< 50 = Backup
50-59 = Below average starter
60-69 = Average starter
70-79 = Above average starter
80-89 = Very good
90-99 = Elite
1 — Josh Palmer — 81.6 (47 snaps)
2 — Jalin Hyatt — 80.4 (11)
3 — Jarrett Guarantano — 74.3 (77)
4 — Velus Jones — 73.6 (22)
5 — Eric Gray — 73.0 (32)
6 —Jabari Small — 71.9 (6)
7 — Darnell Wright — 70.6
8 — Trey Smith — 69.0 (77)
9 — Ty Chandler — 68.9 (40)
10 — Cade Mays — 62.2 (65)
11 — Brandon Johnson — 62.0 (35)
12 — Javontez Spraggins — 60.4 (13)
13 — Jimmy Holliday — 60.3 (5)
14 — Princeton Fant — 60.2 (36)
15 — Malachi Wideman — 60.0 (2)
16 — Jerome Carvin — 58.6 (56)
17 — Riley Locklear — 58.4 (11)
18 — Wanya Morris — 58.2 (77)
19 — Latrell Bumphis — 57.6 (7)
20 — Cedric Tillman — 56.5 (20)
21 —Brandon Kennedy — 55.0 (77)
22 — Cooper Mays — 54.9 (18)
23 — Ramel Keyton —52.9 (42)
24 — Jacob Warren — 49.6 (41)
That two weeks in a row where Josh Palmer and Velus Jones have graded out among the highest on the offensive side of the ball.
It’s a good sign for the Vols that Guarantano continues on an upward trajectory having now gone two games without committing a turnover while throwing two TDs and consistently pushing the ball down the field.
All three of the Vols’ tailbacks graded out well per PFF and it’s not surprising to see Eric Gray leading the way after going for 100+ yards and two touchdowns on Saturday.
Without having gone back and studied it intently I was a little surprised to see that Darnell Wright emerged with the highest PFF grade among offensive linemen. Likewise, I thought Wanya Morris played a better game than his grade would seem to reflect. Same for Cooper Mays.
Though it was a small sample size (13 snaps), Spraggins graded out the highest of the linemen as far as pass protection (74.8). Both Smith (71.6) and Morris (70.9) were 70+ as well.
Guarantano took seven shots down the field of 20+ yards and was 3-of-7 on those throws. That’s definitely a number you can live with. None of those targets were over the middle where Tennessee took four such shots against South Carolina in the opener.
Tennessee did work the middle of the field hard with the short and intermediate throws. Of the 13 throws that were under 20 yards six of those were between the hashes where Guarantano was 5-for-6 for 39 yards.
Guarantano was most successful throwing to the right side of the field where he was 5-for-7 for 96 yards. By comparison he was 2-for-7 for 42 yards throwing to the left.
Tennessee came right at Missouri in the ground game. The Vols had 49 rushes on the day (not including kneel downs) and 18 of those were directly to the left or right of center in the guard gap and went for 79 yards.
The Vols got the most bang for their buck going wide. Four rushes around left end went for 39 yards (9.8 ypc) and four rushes wide right went for 30 yards (7.5 ypc).
DEFENSE
1 — Kivon Bennett — 78.2 (41 snaps)
2 — Omari Thomas —77.2 (6)
3 — Trevon Flowers — 73.1 (62)
4 — John Mincey — 69.5 (4)
5 — Deandre Johnson — 68.8 (33)
6 — Bryce Thompson — 67.4 (9)
7 — Matthew Butler — 66.6 (29)
8 — Tyler Baron — 66.5 (8)
9 — Latrell Bumphus — 65.9 (28)
10 — Darel Middleton — 65.9 (23)
11 — Theo Jackson — 65.0 (48)
12 — Ja’Quain Blakely — 64.2 (8)
13 — Henry To’o To’o — 64.1 (59)
14 — Jeremy Banks — 64.1 (25)
15 — Roman Harrison — 63.7 (12)
16 — Kurott Garland — 62.6 (30)
17 — Elijah Simmons — 62.3 (16)
18 — Greg Emerson — 61.2 (12)
19 — Aubrey Solomon — 60.3 (12)
20 — Kenneth George — 58.7 (61)
21 — Morven Joseph — 57.1 (4)
22 — Quavaris Crouch — 57.0 (36)
23 — Alontae Taylor —50.6 (63)
24 — Jaylen McCollough — 49.9 (63)
Ironically, the guys who graded out the lowest according to PFF—McCollough and Taylor—were the only two defensive players to play every snap. Flowers missed one snap and To’o To’o four.
Jeremy Pruitt was tough on his secondary in his Monday press conference and the PFF grades would seem to agree with his assessment. Only Flowers graded out at 70+, and as noted McCollough and Taylor got hit hard. Similarly, Kenneth George did not have a good day according to the PFF tally.
Jackson’s ‘targeted’ numbers came out the best of anyone in the secondary. Drawing the start at nickel he was targeted five times and gave up zero receptions. One week after being easily the best cover guy at South Carolina PFF’s numbers say that Taylor was targeted four times with three completions against him for 66 yards. McCollough had similarly rough numbers with three completions for 76 yards giving up in four targets.
Flowers received the highest tackling grade on the defense at 85.8 followed by McCollough (82.6) and Crouch (80.3).
Omari Thomas obviously didn’t play much, but the PFF guys liked what he did in that short time, grading him out at 77.2, second best on the defense.
Bennett got by far the highest pass rush grade at 81.7. Barron, in his eight snaps, was next at 66.5 followed by Jeremy Banks (66.1) and Roman Harrison (61.6)
For the second straight week I kind of think the PFF guys are being a little harsh on the front seven. Missouri averaged less than four yards per carry (3.5) but no defensive lineman outside of Thomas who played just those six snaps, was graded higher than Bumphus at 65.9. That doesn’t quite add up to me, but that’s just my opinion.
Tennessee played a lot more guys up front this week than they did in the opener. Butler saw his snap count go down from 59 at South Carolina to 29 this week. Getting Middleton back, who played 23 snaps, helped obviously but the Vols also gave Garland more work (30 snaps up from 19) with Mincey and Thomas also getting a few more reps.
I thought both Banks and Crouch played better than their PFF grades suggest but both got dinged pretty hard for their coverage grades, 49.6 for Crouch, 54.7 for Banks.
< 50 = Backup
50-59 = Below average starter
60-69 = Average starter
70-79 = Above average starter
80-89 = Very good
90-99 = Elite
1 — Josh Palmer — 81.6 (47 snaps)
2 — Jalin Hyatt — 80.4 (11)
3 — Jarrett Guarantano — 74.3 (77)
4 — Velus Jones — 73.6 (22)
5 — Eric Gray — 73.0 (32)
6 —Jabari Small — 71.9 (6)
7 — Darnell Wright — 70.6
8 — Trey Smith — 69.0 (77)
9 — Ty Chandler — 68.9 (40)
10 — Cade Mays — 62.2 (65)
11 — Brandon Johnson — 62.0 (35)
12 — Javontez Spraggins — 60.4 (13)
13 — Jimmy Holliday — 60.3 (5)
14 — Princeton Fant — 60.2 (36)
15 — Malachi Wideman — 60.0 (2)
16 — Jerome Carvin — 58.6 (56)
17 — Riley Locklear — 58.4 (11)
18 — Wanya Morris — 58.2 (77)
19 — Latrell Bumphis — 57.6 (7)
20 — Cedric Tillman — 56.5 (20)
21 —Brandon Kennedy — 55.0 (77)
22 — Cooper Mays — 54.9 (18)
23 — Ramel Keyton —52.9 (42)
24 — Jacob Warren — 49.6 (41)
That two weeks in a row where Josh Palmer and Velus Jones have graded out among the highest on the offensive side of the ball.
It’s a good sign for the Vols that Guarantano continues on an upward trajectory having now gone two games without committing a turnover while throwing two TDs and consistently pushing the ball down the field.
All three of the Vols’ tailbacks graded out well per PFF and it’s not surprising to see Eric Gray leading the way after going for 100+ yards and two touchdowns on Saturday.
Without having gone back and studied it intently I was a little surprised to see that Darnell Wright emerged with the highest PFF grade among offensive linemen. Likewise, I thought Wanya Morris played a better game than his grade would seem to reflect. Same for Cooper Mays.
Though it was a small sample size (13 snaps), Spraggins graded out the highest of the linemen as far as pass protection (74.8). Both Smith (71.6) and Morris (70.9) were 70+ as well.
Guarantano took seven shots down the field of 20+ yards and was 3-of-7 on those throws. That’s definitely a number you can live with. None of those targets were over the middle where Tennessee took four such shots against South Carolina in the opener.
Tennessee did work the middle of the field hard with the short and intermediate throws. Of the 13 throws that were under 20 yards six of those were between the hashes where Guarantano was 5-for-6 for 39 yards.
Guarantano was most successful throwing to the right side of the field where he was 5-for-7 for 96 yards. By comparison he was 2-for-7 for 42 yards throwing to the left.
Tennessee came right at Missouri in the ground game. The Vols had 49 rushes on the day (not including kneel downs) and 18 of those were directly to the left or right of center in the guard gap and went for 79 yards.
The Vols got the most bang for their buck going wide. Four rushes around left end went for 39 yards (9.8 ypc) and four rushes wide right went for 30 yards (7.5 ypc).
DEFENSE
1 — Kivon Bennett — 78.2 (41 snaps)
2 — Omari Thomas —77.2 (6)
3 — Trevon Flowers — 73.1 (62)
4 — John Mincey — 69.5 (4)
5 — Deandre Johnson — 68.8 (33)
6 — Bryce Thompson — 67.4 (9)
7 — Matthew Butler — 66.6 (29)
8 — Tyler Baron — 66.5 (8)
9 — Latrell Bumphus — 65.9 (28)
10 — Darel Middleton — 65.9 (23)
11 — Theo Jackson — 65.0 (48)
12 — Ja’Quain Blakely — 64.2 (8)
13 — Henry To’o To’o — 64.1 (59)
14 — Jeremy Banks — 64.1 (25)
15 — Roman Harrison — 63.7 (12)
16 — Kurott Garland — 62.6 (30)
17 — Elijah Simmons — 62.3 (16)
18 — Greg Emerson — 61.2 (12)
19 — Aubrey Solomon — 60.3 (12)
20 — Kenneth George — 58.7 (61)
21 — Morven Joseph — 57.1 (4)
22 — Quavaris Crouch — 57.0 (36)
23 — Alontae Taylor —50.6 (63)
24 — Jaylen McCollough — 49.9 (63)
Ironically, the guys who graded out the lowest according to PFF—McCollough and Taylor—were the only two defensive players to play every snap. Flowers missed one snap and To’o To’o four.
Jeremy Pruitt was tough on his secondary in his Monday press conference and the PFF grades would seem to agree with his assessment. Only Flowers graded out at 70+, and as noted McCollough and Taylor got hit hard. Similarly, Kenneth George did not have a good day according to the PFF tally.
Jackson’s ‘targeted’ numbers came out the best of anyone in the secondary. Drawing the start at nickel he was targeted five times and gave up zero receptions. One week after being easily the best cover guy at South Carolina PFF’s numbers say that Taylor was targeted four times with three completions against him for 66 yards. McCollough had similarly rough numbers with three completions for 76 yards giving up in four targets.
Flowers received the highest tackling grade on the defense at 85.8 followed by McCollough (82.6) and Crouch (80.3).
Omari Thomas obviously didn’t play much, but the PFF guys liked what he did in that short time, grading him out at 77.2, second best on the defense.
Bennett got by far the highest pass rush grade at 81.7. Barron, in his eight snaps, was next at 66.5 followed by Jeremy Banks (66.1) and Roman Harrison (61.6)
For the second straight week I kind of think the PFF guys are being a little harsh on the front seven. Missouri averaged less than four yards per carry (3.5) but no defensive lineman outside of Thomas who played just those six snaps, was graded higher than Bumphus at 65.9. That doesn’t quite add up to me, but that’s just my opinion.
Tennessee played a lot more guys up front this week than they did in the opener. Butler saw his snap count go down from 59 at South Carolina to 29 this week. Getting Middleton back, who played 23 snaps, helped obviously but the Vols also gave Garland more work (30 snaps up from 19) with Mincey and Thomas also getting a few more reps.
I thought both Banks and Crouch played better than their PFF grades suggest but both got dinged pretty hard for their coverage grades, 49.6 for Crouch, 54.7 for Banks.
