Tennessee Football has been putting up some monster team numbers on the offensive side of the ball through the first three games. The Vols have 20 total touchdowns, which is tied for the most among SEC programs alongside Missouri and Arkansas. With one more field goal than Mizzou and five more than Arkansas, Tennessee has the most points in the SEC at 158 with an average of 52.7 points per game.
A lot of that scoring is from the passing game. Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar has nine passing touchdowns, which is tied for the second-most in the SEC with a handful of other signal callers. He’s also got the second-most passing yards in the conference with 906.
Wide receiver Chris Brazzell has been a huge beneficiary of Aguilar’s success throwing the football. During his first season with the Vols in 2024, Brazzell caught 29 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns with Nico Iamaleava as the quarterback. Through three games in 2025, he already has 20 receptions for 364 yards and five touchdowns.
Brazzell leads the SEC with five touchdown receptions and is tied for the FBS lead in the same category. As a comparison to the type of pace that he’s on, former Tennessee standout Jalin Hyatt tallied 18 receptions for 267 yards and three touchdowns during the first three games of his Biletnikoff Award-winning season in 2022.
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But for as good as the offense has been collectively, it’s more of the Vols’ defensive players that have individual SEC-leading statistics through the first 12 quarters of the season.
Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter has a conference-leading 27 total tackles. In the secondary, cornerback Colton Hood is tied for the most passes defended with five on the season so far. All five have been in the pass breakup category, which leads the SEC. UT cornerback Ty Redmond is right below Hood with four passes defended on the year.
Tennessee EDGE rusher Joshua Josephs has been a wrecking machine for the Vols’ defense so far. He was expected to step up with the departure of James Pearce Jr., but he has already exceeded those lofty expectations. Josephs is tied for the most sacks (3) in the SEC and also leads the conference in forced fumbles (2). Even though the competition is going to get consistently better, that’s an outrageous pace so far.
Tennessee’s players will have another big chance to rack up some stats this Saturday when the Vols host UAB in their fourth game of the season. That game will take place at 12:45 p.m. ET in Neyland Stadium.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live coverage of the game on Saturday.
