Tennessee dominated defensively, then they didn’t. They struggled offensively then they didn’t and somehow thanks in part to a gutsy call from the head coach the Vols won the Taxslayer Bowl 23-22. We review the Vols 8th win with The Day After.

HOT

Jeremy Pruitt — I didn’t think Pruitt and his staff had their best game overall — clock management (more on that in a minute), head scratcher in redzone play calling, Indiana made better adjustments at the half, etc. But schools around the country are paying big money to head coaches to make critical decisions and Pruitt made a helluva call in the onside kick. Also, give Pruitt credit for how he managed the bowl schedule. There were some young players who were improved Thursday night because of all the work they got done in the month of December. Pruitt has definitely grown from year one to year two as a head coach.

Paxton Brooks — Brooks’ rugby style kick hit his gunner in the back going just 29 yards, but none of that mattered thanks to Brooks’ perfect execution of the “bunt right” onside kick that flipped the game. If you are looking for a golf analogy, Brooks “hearted” that kick like a putt to win a tournament.

Fourth quarter JG — Classic Guarantano. He just keeps playing. He was high with the football in the redzone all night. He was terrible in the middle eight minutes of the game to the point he was benched. Brian Maurer was so bad, they went back with JG and the redshirt junior delivered. In the Vols two touchdown drives the win the game, Guarantano was 6 for 10 for 92 yards after going 4-10 for 29 yards and 2 INT’s in the second and third quarter. Thursday night it was flat out ugly a lot of the time, but when they had to make plays in the fourth quarter he found enough of them.

The Vols defense — Indiana didn’t cross mid field in the first half except for the Guarantano interception the second quarter. The defense gave up 69 yards in the first half. The defense had 4 sacks and 9 total TFL’s and four more quarterback hurries. Had the offense not had first half issues, the game would have been a rout as the defense gave up just just one touchdown.

NOT

Clock management — Mercy what a mess that was. Indiana botched the clock at the end of the first half, but in the four quarter trying to run out the clock, Tennessee put on a clinic of what not to do. First of all, Pruitt baled out the Hoosiers when he called time out to ice the kicker as the play clock was basically expiring. Then after the miss, Tennessee’s Jauan Jennings on the Wildcat run snapped the ball with 13 seconds left on the play clock. Then Brandon Kennedy got the penalty that prevented some 20 seconds running off the clock. By the way, the sprinting to the line of scrimmage on third or fourth and short never works.

Redzone offense — I should say redzone passing offense. Then Tennessee ran the football they did so somewhat effectively. But they couldn’t throw it a lick.

Tennessee had 19 snaps in the redzone, Guarantano was 2-11 for 7 yards. They had 8 runs for 35 yards and 2 touchdowns. With a quarterback struggling with timing and accuracy, Chaney was way too pass happy inside the twenty.

The middle 8 — During the Vols five game regular season winning streak, the recipe for winning was no turnovers and win the last four minutes of the first half and the first of the second half. The Vols had out scored their opponents 38-7 in the middle 8 in their five game streak and they had forced punts on the opponents opening possession of the second half in 8 straight games. In the middle 8 Thursday night, Indiana outscored the Vols 10-0 and Tennessee threw an interception. With Guarantano’s pick six just past the middle 8 mark, they were actually outscored 17-0.

Onside kick — Winning the Taxslayer Bowl is not going to be one of the Vols most historical bowl wins, but the “bunt right” will go down as one of the great plays in bowl history. Down 6 for with 4:20 to play and 3 timeouts, kicking it deep was what the coaching manual said to do. But Pruitt, who admittedly, doesn’t coach by the book. He called the play Tennessee had been saving all year and Paxton Brooks executed it to perfection keeping the momentum for his team and setting the Vols up with the game winning drive.

Gray game winning TD run — The redzone had been pretty much a disaster. Tennessee couldn’t throw it inside the 20 and on the previous drive it took the three cracks on the ground to score from the 7 and they needed outside linebacker Quavaris Crouch to get in. But Eric Gray, Trey Smith, and Brandon Kennedy said there was no need for drama on the last score as they created a huge hole that Gray galloped 16 yards into the endzone.

15 second runoff —.It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet but it was a huge play in the game even Indiana head coach Tom Allen admitted it. Logan Jusetus was lined up to kick a potential game winning 52 yard kick. Jeremy Pruitt called timeout to ice him but there was a clock malfunction and in order to get it right the officials ran 15 seconds off the clock with Justus standing and waiting on the chance to kick.

“Any time you have to pause and wait as a kicker, it kind of makes it harder,” Allen said of Justus’ final field goal attempt of the game. “It was not ideal, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.”

JG throw to Gray (x2) — Guarantano was 1 for his last 6 for -1 yard with 2 interceptions. He had been sacked and had been benched when he lined up his offense at his own 18 with 7:06 to play down 22-9. Guarantano hit Eric Gray twice over the middle for 34 yards and suddenly he was in rhythm and the offense was on the move. Guarantano completed his next three throws moving the offense to the Indiana 13 in well under 2 minutes. And give Kivon Bennett as huge assist for getting that drive started. Facing 2nd and 5 and looking to milk the clock, Bennett had a huge tackle for a 3 yard loss on Sampson James turning a third and short into a 3rd and 8. The 3 and out only took 1:44 off the clock and gave the offense a shot.

.2%— That’s the winning percentage for teams down 13 or points or more in the final five minute of a game. Tennessee is the only team in 472 continues to pull off the comeback.

8.9 — That’s Eric Gray’s after gain per touch in the last two games. On 41 touches (39 runs and 2 receptions) Gray has 366 yards and 4 touchdowns. IU head coach Tom Allen called Gray some kind of special with his ability to cut and accelerate in his post game comments.

16 — Indiana’s longest run of the night. Tennessee finished the season giving up only 9 plays of 20 yards or more on the ground this season. A year ago they gave up 14. The defense also recorded 9 more sacks and 3 more total tackles for loss in 2019 compared to 2018.

22 —That’s the number of penalty yards by Indiana in the Vols final two offensive possessions. The Hoosiers only had 46 penalty yards for the game. The holding penalty on Jauan Jennings turned a 3rd and 10 into a first down and the facemask against Josh Palmer turned a 23 yard completion into a 38 yard gaining into the the redzone.

When you average 7.5 yards a touch, and you recover the onside kick after it went 10 yards and 2 inches. You get the MVP trophy and the game ball. Eric Gray followed up his record night against Vanderbilt with another strong performance showing what the Vols can build on with him moving forward.

“No. 3, he's a special player. He's got a different ability to cut and plant and burst, and I think a really talented guy that's going to have a great future,” IU coach Tom Allen said.

Pretty lofty praise for the freshman from Memphis.

There are plenty of questions about the Vols moving into the 2020 season. Tennessee will have to replace a ton of production and leadership from departing seniors Jauan Jennings, Daniel Bituli, Nigel Warrior, Darrell Taylor and Marquez Callaway. Who leads the Vols and who fills their void in terms of production.

The quarterback battles for this team are going to be intense in the spring with a crowded meeting room when you look at the quarterbacks returning and the fact you are adding two more with Harrison Bailey and Jimmy Holiday. Coming out of Missouri, the thought and hope was that Guarantano was going to run away and hide with the job, but in his last two games, the redshirt junior was just 24 of 48 for 341 yards a touchdown and 3 INT’s. It’s going to be interesting spring under center.

And finally, the first question is about Pruitt’s staff moving forward. Tracy Rocker, Chris Weinke, and David Johnson are all on expiring contracts. Johnson has an opportunity at FSU as well as a couple of others options. Tee Martin is in play at Ole Miss if he wants to make a move. So what this staff looks like in the spring is definitely a question.