Tennessee football played its best half of the season on Saturday night at Florida, building a 31-point halftime lead before coasting to a 31-11 victory at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The win marked the Vols’ first in Gainesville since 2003 and gave Tennessee a strong rivalry win.
If you need a reminder on how Pro Football Focus works, read the opening of the Syracuse grades.
Let’s see how the Vols graded out.
Elite grade = 90-100, All-Conference = 85-89, Starter = 70-84, Backup = 60-69, Replaceable = 60 >
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Offensive Grades (minimum 15 plays — 20% of offensive plays)
RB DeSean Bishop — 78.9 (35 plays)
WR Mike Matthews — 71.5 (69 plays)
RB Daune Morris — 71.1 (23 plays)
QB Joey Aguilar — 69.1 (75 plays)
RB Star Thomas — 69.0 (17 plays)
RG Jesse Perry — 68.2 (75 plays)
TE Ethan Davis — 68.2 (59 plays)
TE Jack Van Dorselaer — 65.7 (24 plays)
C Sam Pendleton — 62.8 (74 plays)
WR Chris Brazzell — 60.9 (63 plays)
WR Braylon Staley — 59.5 (56 plays)
RT David Sanders Jr — 56.6 (73 plays)
LG Sham Umarov — 50.1 (75 plays)
LT Lance Heard — 47.5 (75 plays)
Tennessee’s running backs led the way on offensive grades. The Vols leaned on Bishop all night and he had a great game, earning a lot of tough yards in short yardage situation. Freshman Daune Morris saw his first extended action of the season against the Gators and made it count, rushing for 41 yards on 14 carries.
It was not completely shocking that a trio of Tennessee offensive linemen earned the Vols’ worst offensive grades but I am surprised how it happened. All three of Sanders, Umarov and Heard earned poor run blocking grades on a nigh where Tennessee controlled the game on the ground.
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Defensive Grades (minimum 9 plays — 20% of defensive plays)
LEO Josh Josephs — 79.2 (20 plays)
CB Colton Hood — 70.8 (49 plays)
LB Arion Carter — 69.5 (33 plays)
DE Tyree Weathersby — 68.4 (13 plays)
LB Jadon Perlotte — 68.2 (10 plays)
LB Edwin Spillman — 66.0 (26 plays)
DE Dominic Bailey — 64.2 (31 plays)
LEO Caleb Herring — 63.0 (24 plays)
LB Jeremiah Telander — 62.4 (37 plays)
S Andre Turrentine — 61.5 (33 plays)
S Kaleb Beasley — 60.7 (21 plays)
DT Daevin Hobbs — 60.2 (26 plays)
DT Nathan Robinson — 59.5 (11 plays)
DE Tyre West — 58.5 (13 plays)
DT Jaxson Moi — 56.0 (19 plays)
LEO Jordan Ross — 54.4 (10 plays)
CB Ty Redmond — 52.6 (49 plays)
DT Bryson Eason — 49.3 (24 plays)
STAR Jalen McMurray — 47.8 (24 plays)
LB Ben Bolton — 46.3 (16 plays)
S Edrees Farooq — 42.3 (44 plays)
It was a strong night from Tennessee’s linebackers and Arion Carter led the way in his first game fully back from injury. Edwin Spillman also had a strong night, recording seven tackles and a sack. Jeremiah Telander led the team with 10 tackles. I was a bit surprised that Jadon Perlotte didn’t play more snaps given how much 4-3 Tennessee played in this game.
One player who I’m surprised did not great out better was Tyre West. Felt like he was really disruptive throughout the game with the senior recording two tackles for loss in his 13 snaps.
The three Vol defensive backs that landed at the bottom of the rankings all earned horrid tackling grades. Redmond had a 21.4 tackling grade, McMurray had a 24.6 tackling grade and Farooq had a 29.8 tackling grade.
