Each week I'll dig deeper than the traditional box score, so let’s dive into Tennessee's Week 6 advanced stats, courtesy of Pro Football Focus.
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
With that … the PFF data Tennessee-Mississippi State advanced stats…
First quick note: Tennessee had five players who saw at least 10 snaps who graded out better than 80.0.
That hasn’t happened for the Vols a single time since PFF started grading college games in 2011, per my cursory research.
OFFENSIVE GRADES
Others who played sparingly included tailback Eric Gray (six snaps) and backup tight ends Princeton Fant (two snaps) and Andrew Craig (three snaps).
Senior wideout Tyler Byrd (90.4 on 12 snaps) graded out as the team’s best player Saturday. He only saw a dozen snaps, but they were 12 very effective snaps. He caught three passes and made two critical blocks in the run game on the final scoring drive.
Meanwhile, freshman Jerrod Means entered the rotation, seeing 15 snaps Saturday. Notably, 14 run plays were called when Means was in the game. Elsewhere, right tackle K’Rojhn Calbert rotated a bit with Wright and saw 15 snaps.
Carvin, who had just 36 snaps all season and hadn’t played since Chattanooga, saw 31 snaps against the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Cedric Tillman, who had been in the WR rotation as a semi-regular the last few weeks, didn’t see the field Saturday.
Tennessee had a fairly conservative gameplan, but the offensive line continued its strong play in pass protection. The Vols allowed just two quarterback hurries/hits, per PFF, both on the freshman tackles.
In terms of run blocking, Smith had a grade of 89.6 — the best by a UT lineman all season. Now conversely, Wright continues to struggle in that area, grading out at 45.8 on 30 run snaps. The freshman has some pancake blocks — both in run and pass pro — but a lack of consistency is the issue right now.
Guarantano had just two attempts over 10 yards — his completion to Keyton and the drop by Jennings. Tennessee’s former starter was 5-of-5 for 64 yards and a score on throws under five yards in the air. Maurer had four attempts over 10 yards, throwing two picks and the nice completion to Wood-Anderson on the opening drive.
In the run game, the Vols didn’t have a bunch of explosive plays, but Jordan did have two runs over 10 yards, same for Maurer. Jordan was also effective after contact, with 36 of his 59 yards coming from YAC.
Finally, Tennessee’s target distribution was very interesting Saturday. Obviously, the the gameplan changed once Maurer got knocked out, but the Vols had just 17 drop-backs, attempting only 14 passes. Byrd was targeted three times and caught all three passes. Wood-Anderson, Keyton and Jordan all hauled in their lone targets. Jennings caught three of five targets and Palmer was one of three. Notably, Callaway didn’t see a single pass his way Saturday in 44 snaps.
DEFENSIVE GRADES
Others who saw multiple snaps included defensive lineman Aubrey Solomon (eight snaps, 84.2 grade) and Darel Middleton (eight snaps, 88.5 grade), both of whom were effective in limited work. Kurott Garland had been a regular rotational DL but saw just eight snaps as well (59.6 grade), as Tennessee played a lot more dime and rabbits against Mississippi State. Ja’Quain Blakely had played just 13 total snaps against BYU, UF and UGA, but against MSU, the nose tackle saw a career-high 14 snaps.
Elsewhere, backup OLBs Kivon Bennett (17 snaps, 64.6 grade) and Deandre Johnson (11 snaps, 59.3 grade) were a bigger part of the gameplan. Same for freshman Roman Harrison (nine snaps).
With Flowers getting hurt, Jaylen McCollough entered the game as the team’s third safety and saw 14 snaps. Lastly, Solon Page was in on State’s final drive and played his first few defensive snaps of his career.
Those who didn’t see the field Saturday included Savion Williams, John Mincey and Warren Burrell (ankle).
Tennessee created all sorts of havoc against Mississippi State, recording sacks, tackles for loss and three interceptions. Darrell Taylor easily had his best performance of the season, recording two sacks and four total hurries.
Taylor was also very solid in run support, while Middleton graded out as excellent (87.2 0n five run snaps). I noted in my review piece that Alontae Taylor was effective holding the edge and the PFF stats back that up, giving him a grade of 85.6 in the run game.
It’s interesting that Pruitt noted Monday that Tennessee didn’t play quite as clean as he thought on film rewatch, and the stats back that up. Despite an overall impressive defensive performance, the Vols missed some tackles, especially when Garrett Shrader decided to takeoff from the pocket. In all, Tennessee missed 12 tackles, per PFF. Bituli had two with nine other guys each missing one.
The Vols did a nice job stymying Mississippi State’s passing game, allowing just a single completion over 20 yards. Warrior, Flowers and Shamburger all had coverage grades north of 78.8. On the flip side, their inside linebackers continue to be picked on in coverage, yielding four receptions on five targets, most all coming off RPOs.
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
With that … the PFF data Tennessee-Mississippi State advanced stats…
First quick note: Tennessee had five players who saw at least 10 snaps who graded out better than 80.0.
That hasn’t happened for the Vols a single time since PFF started grading college games in 2011, per my cursory research.
OFFENSIVE GRADES
- LG Trey Smith (90.3)
- QB Jarrett Guarantano (90.3)
- WR Ramel Keyton (76.4)
- TE Dominick Wood-Anderson (73.7)
- RB Tim Jordan (65.7)
- RG Ryan Johnson (64.9)
- RB Ty Chandler (62.5)
- QB Brian Maurer (59.9)
- WR Jauan Jennings (57.3)
- C Brandon Kennedy (57.1)
- RG Jerome Carvin (54.7)
- LT Wanya Morris (54.3)
- WR Marquez Callaway (52.9)
- WR Josh Palmer (51.6)
- TE Austin Pope (49.6)
- RT Darnell Wright (42.7)
Others who played sparingly included tailback Eric Gray (six snaps) and backup tight ends Princeton Fant (two snaps) and Andrew Craig (three snaps).
Senior wideout Tyler Byrd (90.4 on 12 snaps) graded out as the team’s best player Saturday. He only saw a dozen snaps, but they were 12 very effective snaps. He caught three passes and made two critical blocks in the run game on the final scoring drive.
Meanwhile, freshman Jerrod Means entered the rotation, seeing 15 snaps Saturday. Notably, 14 run plays were called when Means was in the game. Elsewhere, right tackle K’Rojhn Calbert rotated a bit with Wright and saw 15 snaps.
Carvin, who had just 36 snaps all season and hadn’t played since Chattanooga, saw 31 snaps against the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Cedric Tillman, who had been in the WR rotation as a semi-regular the last few weeks, didn’t see the field Saturday.
Tennessee had a fairly conservative gameplan, but the offensive line continued its strong play in pass protection. The Vols allowed just two quarterback hurries/hits, per PFF, both on the freshman tackles.
In terms of run blocking, Smith had a grade of 89.6 — the best by a UT lineman all season. Now conversely, Wright continues to struggle in that area, grading out at 45.8 on 30 run snaps. The freshman has some pancake blocks — both in run and pass pro — but a lack of consistency is the issue right now.
Guarantano had just two attempts over 10 yards — his completion to Keyton and the drop by Jennings. Tennessee’s former starter was 5-of-5 for 64 yards and a score on throws under five yards in the air. Maurer had four attempts over 10 yards, throwing two picks and the nice completion to Wood-Anderson on the opening drive.
In the run game, the Vols didn’t have a bunch of explosive plays, but Jordan did have two runs over 10 yards, same for Maurer. Jordan was also effective after contact, with 36 of his 59 yards coming from YAC.
Finally, Tennessee’s target distribution was very interesting Saturday. Obviously, the the gameplan changed once Maurer got knocked out, but the Vols had just 17 drop-backs, attempting only 14 passes. Byrd was targeted three times and caught all three passes. Wood-Anderson, Keyton and Jordan all hauled in their lone targets. Jennings caught three of five targets and Palmer was one of three. Notably, Callaway didn’t see a single pass his way Saturday in 44 snaps.
DEFENSIVE GRADES
- OLB Darrell Taylor (90.1)
- FS Nigel Warrior (88.5)
- FS Trevon Flowers (78.0)
- DT Matthew Butler (76.1)
- FS Shawn Shamburger (68.7)
- CB Kenneth George (66.9)
- S Theo Jackson (63.7)
- CB Alontae Taylor (61.3)
- DL Greg Emerson (60.5)
- MLB Daniel Bituli (57.1)
- DE Latrell Bumphus (55.1)
- OLB Quavaris Crouch (54.5)
- CB Bryce Thompson (54.1)
- MLB Henry To’oto’o (42.6)
Others who saw multiple snaps included defensive lineman Aubrey Solomon (eight snaps, 84.2 grade) and Darel Middleton (eight snaps, 88.5 grade), both of whom were effective in limited work. Kurott Garland had been a regular rotational DL but saw just eight snaps as well (59.6 grade), as Tennessee played a lot more dime and rabbits against Mississippi State. Ja’Quain Blakely had played just 13 total snaps against BYU, UF and UGA, but against MSU, the nose tackle saw a career-high 14 snaps.
Elsewhere, backup OLBs Kivon Bennett (17 snaps, 64.6 grade) and Deandre Johnson (11 snaps, 59.3 grade) were a bigger part of the gameplan. Same for freshman Roman Harrison (nine snaps).
With Flowers getting hurt, Jaylen McCollough entered the game as the team’s third safety and saw 14 snaps. Lastly, Solon Page was in on State’s final drive and played his first few defensive snaps of his career.
Those who didn’t see the field Saturday included Savion Williams, John Mincey and Warren Burrell (ankle).
Tennessee created all sorts of havoc against Mississippi State, recording sacks, tackles for loss and three interceptions. Darrell Taylor easily had his best performance of the season, recording two sacks and four total hurries.
Taylor was also very solid in run support, while Middleton graded out as excellent (87.2 0n five run snaps). I noted in my review piece that Alontae Taylor was effective holding the edge and the PFF stats back that up, giving him a grade of 85.6 in the run game.
It’s interesting that Pruitt noted Monday that Tennessee didn’t play quite as clean as he thought on film rewatch, and the stats back that up. Despite an overall impressive defensive performance, the Vols missed some tackles, especially when Garrett Shrader decided to takeoff from the pocket. In all, Tennessee missed 12 tackles, per PFF. Bituli had two with nine other guys each missing one.
The Vols did a nice job stymying Mississippi State’s passing game, allowing just a single completion over 20 yards. Warrior, Flowers and Shamburger all had coverage grades north of 78.8. On the flip side, their inside linebackers continue to be picked on in coverage, yielding four receptions on five targets, most all coming off RPOs.
