Indiana State Grades

Quarterbacks - Quinten Dormady was somehow both better and worse in this game than against Georgia Tech. If that doesn't make sense, I'll do my best to explain. Dormady was much more efficient against Indiana State on fewer passing attempts, tossing two touchdowns. However, he was also a bit more careless with the football, coughing up a fumble and throwing a pick. Jarrett Guarantano got his first real action and it was both underwhelming and impressive. He should have had two more passes end in completions, and he threw a nice touchdown pass to Jeff George among his four completions, but completing 33% of his passes and only rushing for six yards wasn't exactly an overwhelming performance. Dormady completed over 72% of his passes and the two quarterbacks combined for 3 touchdowns through the air. Not a great outing, but far from a bad one. The caliber of the opponent dings them on this one. They shouldn't have had the mistakes. C+

Running Backs - This is a mix of old and new news. Old news: John Kelly is still really good at football and the University of Tennessee's web team is still really bad at keeping the players straight on the stat sheet. New news: Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan, Trey Coleman, and Carlin Fils-aime are more than just serviceable backups, combining for 15 carries, 86 yards, and 2 touchdowns along with 2 receptions for 12 yards. Fils-aime has been a particularly impressive player in his limited career touches, with 17 carries for 99 yards and 4 touchdowns over the past two seasons. When it comes to Tennessee's game on the ground, there's been almost nothing to complain about. A

Receivers - Tennessee had 5 wide receivers that they rotated against Indiana State and...they did alright. The wideouts accounted for all the touchdown receptions. The running backs handled the rest of the receiving work with the exception of one reception by Eli Wolf, which resulted in Wolf missing the remainder of the game with an ankle sprain. I'll give the grade a bump for the limited receivers available combined with a solid performance, but I also have to deduct points for the lack of presence by senior tight end Ethan Wolf. He has to be a weapon for this team, and it hasn't materialized yet. B-

Offensive Line - All in all, the offensive line has been just fine. 8 tackles for loss allowed in 126 plays run, one sack allowed in 67 passing attempts, and a 5.22 yard per carry average. They've cleared the way for 6.06 yards per play with a mostly new group of playmakers at quarterback, receiver, and running back. They've been discombobulated at times, but they had a rough camp with regard to injuries. All things being equal, I have little to complain about. That said, they haven't been perfect by any means. B

Defensive Line - I think it's been hashed out more than enough that the defensive line has been playing off the ball and plenty of people don't like it. I would venture to say that given Georgia Tech's offense and the heavy shifting by Indiana State, it's been somewhat understandable. The question now is how the defensive line has handled their business, and against Indiana State the answer is more or less. Indiana State didn't pass much, so there wasn't much opportunity to bring a consistent pass rush, meaning they only had 2 quarterback hurries and one sack, but that's against only 19 passing attempts, so not great but not awful either. More noteworthy is the 11 tackles for loss mixed in among the 38 rushing attempts by Indiana State, who only averaged 3.2 yards per carry. Not the best game, but far from awful given the defense played pretty vanilla most of the day. B-

Linebackers - Tennessee has had 12 tackles for loss on the season. 7.5 of that has come from the defensive line or defensive backs. In other words, the linebackers have not been making many plays behind the line of scrimmage. My point being that although they've racked up the tackles, they've been making plays after gains by the offense. The top three linebackers are also the Vols top tacklers, so it hasn't been all bad by any means, but when only 3 of the 71 tackles are tackles for loss, something isn't quite kosher. C-

Defensive Backs - It's been hard to get a real feel for how good or bad this group may be. So far Tennessee's opponents have accounted for 62 rushing attempts and 14.5 passing attempts per game. The secondary has barely been called to action, and unfortunately that has led to the group losing focus at times. Clearly that's less than ideal, but they've only allowed a 48.3% completion percentage and one touchdown through two games. If I were being totally honest, this grade should be an incomplete, but given the help in run support from the safeties and nickel and the completion percentage, I'll settle for giving this group a C+ and re-evaluate them as we go forward and see more opponents who can pass more than 20 times in a game.

Special Teams - Still special. Trevor Daniel is one of the best punters in the country. Tennessee is 12th nationally in kickoff return average despite Evan Berry not yet being 100%. Marquez Callaway is 21st nationally in punt return average despite only having four returns so far. Tennessee is tied for 16th nationally in kickoff average and 19th in touchback average. They haven't kicked a field goal yet but Aaron Medley is perfect on PATs despite having kicked 12 through two games, good for 15th nationally in PAT attempts per game. Basically perfect so far. A

Coaching - This wasn't perfect, but all things considered the plan was solid, it worked well, the rotation of the quarterbacks and running backs was fine, there were no major injuries, and there weren't any significant coaching flubs. Nothing special occurred, but nothing problematic did either. Solid B.