Grading the UT Vols: Tennessee football below par in loss at Georgia

ATHENS, Ga. — Tennessee’s start to the SEC season stayed rocky at Georgia on Saturday.

The Vols were outmatched by the Bulldogs, who are undoubtedly the class of the SEC East, a week after being shellacked at home by Florida.

Here are grades for Tennessee’s offense, defense, special teams and coaches — as well as a UT game ball — from its 38-12 loss to Georgia:

Offense

Let’s start with the progress: A week after having five turnovers against Florida, the Vols took significantly better care of the ball. Jarrett Guarantano avoided the bad interceptions. The running backs — and tight ends — didn’t fumble until Jeremy Banks coughed up the ball in the fourth quarter.

But it didn’t really matter. Tennessee struggled to find any regularity early, having issues moving the ball. It was the same old story for Tennessee apart from a pair of explosive plays — a very welcome sight for UT.

The Vols did not cross midfield until the 8:15 mark of the third quarter — and it only happened thanks to a personal foul on UGA’s D’Andre Walker. The Vols capitalized on that penalty and a fourth-down pass interference call to reach the end zone on a Guarantano touchdown pass to Josh Palmer — a rare deep shot for UT.

UT kept fighting through the second half, epitomized by Ty Chandler’s 35-yard touchdown reception that was largely effort and vision in the fourth quarter.

The finish was better than the start for the Vols, who found some success — it was just too little, too late and UT finished with little more than 200 total yards.

Grade: D-plus

Defense

Tennessee’s defense had highlights — namely, Darrell Taylor had highlights and linebacker Quart'e Sapp elevated his play after a weird past week.

The Vols got to Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm in the first half, which is a stark improvement over the first four games. Taylor had two sacks and two forced fumbles in the first quarter and was steady in putting pressure on Fromm.

Unfortunately, one of the fumbles was scooped up by UGA tight end Isaac Nauta for a 40-yard touchdown in another one of those plays that just sums up the Tennessee season so well.

The Vols didn’t play badly against the Bulldogs, who have plenty of offensive weapons. They got more pressure on the quarterback than they have all season, which is a huge dose of positive movement.

But as well as the defense played, at times, it was on the field too much. The Vols eventually wore down and the Bulldogs piled on late in the fourth quarter against a worn-out Tennessee front.

Grade: C-plus

Special teams

Tennessee didn’t punt much against Florida thanks to an unhealthy heaping of turnovers.

It did Saturday. Joe Doyle got plenty of work, performing as well as he has all season.

The Vols had alarming formation issues in the punt game, which is a pure coaching issue. It hurt the special teams effort in negating a Doyle punt that pinned UGA inside its 5.

Grade: B-minus

Coaching

What does bad coaching look like? It looks like three illegal formation penalties on punts in the first quarter alone.

That’s an alarming issue that is really inexplicable. Coaches know you can’t have five players lined up in the backfield on a punt. That’s bad.

For the second week in a row, the Vols were conservative offensively. There has to be a degree of understanding with a poor offensive line against a good defense. But there was a serious lack of deep looks in the passing game. Once again, it was a lot of first-down run and second-down for the Vols.

The defense, however, was well-prepared and had a lot to build on. It really did play well against a solid offense until the game was late.

Grade: C-minus

Vols game ball

Darrell Taylor

The UT outside linebacker hasn’t had many highlights this season. He had at least two Saturday, giving flashbacks to his huge game against Georgia Tech to open last season.

He also had a third-quarter sack.