Tennessee football is 1-0 on the 2025 season, taking care of Syracuse with relative ease 45-26 in the Aflac Kickoff Classic in Atlanta.
Throughout the season, we will look at the Tennessee football stock report from the game before. We start with Syracuse as we got the first look at Josh Heupel’s fifth Tennessee team.
More From RTI: Five Critical Moments As Tennessee Football Handles Syracuse In Season Opener
Stock Up
Cornerback Depth
Tennessee is down All-American cornerback Jermod McCoy to open the season as he continues to work back from the knee injury he suffered in January. Fellow starting cornerback Rickey Gibson played just 19 snaps after suffering an injury in the second quarter.
Yet, the Vols’ got high level cornerback play against Syracuse. Colorado transfer Colton Hood and freshman Ty Redmond graded out higher than any other players on Tennessee’s roster in the opener.
Syracuse targeted Hood five times. He allowed one catch for five yards and broke up three passes while recording four tackles. Syracuses targeted Redmond three times. He allowed one catch for 28 yards while breaking up two passes.
Stock all the way up for Tennessee’s cornerback depth.
Offensive Line
I was already cautiously optimistic about Tennessee’s offensive line entering the season. They gave nothing but reasons to have more confidence in them going forward.
Syracuse not only didn’t sack Joey Aguilar but didn’t record a single pressure according to the official game stats. Tennessee’s front controlled the line of scrimmage in the run game too with the Vols rushing for 247 yards despite not leaning on wide splits as often.
Lance Heard looked like a completely different player than he did a season ago, holding down Aguilar’s blindside in the quarterback’s debut.
Joey Aguilar
Speaking of Aguilar’s debut, there was a lot more to like than not. Aguilar was not perfect. He was inaccurate on a number of throws— particularly to the sideline where he showed a tendency to miss high. But there wasn’t otherwise a ton to complain about.
Aguilar hit Braylon Staley right in stride for a 73-yard touchdown, had strong command of the offense and showed creativity and touch that Tennessee has lacked at quarterback the last two seasons on a pair of third down red zone touchdowns.
Admittedly, my expectations were low for Aguilar. I’m certainly not ready to crown him just yet. But it was a good debut that provides reasons to be optimistic.
Stock Holding
Running Back Room
We spent the entire preseason camp hyping up Tennessee’s running back room and the impressive depth they have in it. That group performed like we thought it would, making the departure of SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson hardly look noticeable.
Star Thomas rushed for 92 yards on 12 carries. DeSean Bishop added 82 yards on 11 carries and Peyton Lewis totaled 38 yards on eight carries.
We wondered what the rotation would look like. It was extremely balanced. Bishop and Lewis played 24 snaps each while Lewis played 20 snaps.
Boo Carter
After a tumultuous offseason, Boo Carter played 27 defensive snaps in the season opener but did not return punts.
Carter played about half as many snaps at Jalen McMurray at STAR and Tennessee didn’t miss him much on defense with McMurray recording a sack and tipping a pass which led to an interception. Carter was solid when he played besides a bad missed sack on fourth down.
Tennessee’s need for Carter on defense isn’t crazy but they should get back to using him as a punt returner.
Stock Down
Health
The injury bug got Tennessee from before the first snap and continued throughout the game. David Sanders didn’t play. Jaxson Moi suffered an injury three plays in and didn’t return. Rickey Gibson didn’t return after a second quarter injury. Nathan Robinson and Arion Carter each got banged up before returning to the game.
Sanders injury doesn’t seem serious. We’ll see the case with some of those other players. Tennessee has two weeks to get healthy for Georgia with its ETSU bye next week. But the Vols need to get healthy.
Defensive Tackle
I pounded the drum throughout fall practice that Tennessee’s defensive tackle depth was a concern. Daevin Hobbs injury two weeks ago heightened that feeling and it was tested early when Jaxson Moi went down with an injury.
Robinson performed well but has struggled to stay healthy and got banged up in the opener. No one else looked great. Bryson Eason and Dominic Bailey, who slid inside and played some tackle, each played more snaps than they did in any single game last season.
Syracuse didn’t gash Tennessee on the ground but they ran the ball far better than I expected. Stock is down on Tennessee’s defensive line, particularly its defensive tackles leaving week one.
