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The Day After

Tennessee enters their open date losers of three straight after Saturday’s 48-17 loss to Alabama. We review the Vols loss with The Day After.

HOT AND NOT

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HOT

Tennessee’s offensive line — They Vols big uglies weren’t beautiful on Saturday but they weren’t bad either. Darnell Wright played his best game. And overall that unit had a solid day with another re-shuffled line up. They gave up no sacks and the 303 yards of offense gained were the most by a Vol offense against Alabama since 2015. Tennessee still hasn’t had a 200 yard passer against Alabama since Jonathan Crompton. Tennessee’s rushing total of 139 yards is the most the have had on Alabama since they rushed for 181 in 2014.

Jarrett Guarantano — The guy just won’t throw in the towel. After being terrible a week ago in an ugly, unforgivable loss to Kentucky. The senior bounced back with a solid day going 13 of 24 for 162 yards and two touchdowns. Guarantano had no turnovers. He wasn’t sacked and he had 22 yards rushing. He wasn’t great but he was much improved and is clearly the quarterback for this team in the eyes of this coaching staff.

NOT

The secondary — This unit is struggling big time. They can’t catch a ball thrown too them. They can’t defend the middle of the field and they just aren’t playing well at all. Mac Jones threw for 387 yards and connected on his first 11 passes. He had five completions of 20 yards or more. And he did it without his best weapon, Jaylen Waddle who was hurt on the opening kickoff.

The second half — I almost wonder if the Vols should even go into the locker room at the half because the last three weeks whatever is being said isn’t working. Tennessee opened the second half with a fumble like they did at Georgia, which was returned for a touchdown to make the score 35-7. They have just not done anything well in the second half in the last three games. The Vols have been outscored 64-7 in the second half by Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama.

The roster — Alabama was better at every position on the field on Saturday. If the two teams played 20 times, you would take Alabama to win all 20. Pruitt referenced the talent gap in his post game press conference a gap he said is closing.

“For us to beat these guys today, we needed to play really clean football and have a couple of things to go our way. That’s the truth of the matter. I think a great indication of talent level when you look at your team is look and see who gets drafted. We have a lot of young guys on our team and we’ve got some older guys on our team that are continuing to improve. We have to execute at a higher level on both sides of the ball to give ourselves a chance. The last half of this season will be a great opportunity to see where we’re at as far as these guys doing that.

“I can assure you that the gap is closing. It might not show on the scoreboard today, but the gap is closing. I can assure you that. That’s one thing that is frustrating to me and it is frustrating to our players. There are times that we have done some really good things as a team, whether it is the offense playing really well or the defense playing really well or special teams. We’ve not put any of that together and that’s what elite teams in our conference do. They don’t have many bad plays and they don’t make many mistakes. They make the other team beat them.

DEFINING MOMENTS

Gray’s fumble to open the second half — Tennessee’s woes to start the second half continue. Against Georgia the Vols turned it over. Against Kentucky they went three and out when a touchdown would have made it 17-14 and changed the complexion of the game. Against Alabama Gray had the ball ripped out of his hands and the Tide took it back to the end zone.

Jalen Hyatt to the end zone — The freshman speedster continues to show his talents as he got behind the Tide secondary twice. The first one was a 38 yard catch for his first Tennessee touchdown. He’s going to only get more and more playing time moving forward. He was a good evaluation by this coaching staff.

Mac Jones to John Metchie for 45 yards to the Tennessee 2 — To have a chance to beat Alabama, the Tide had to make mistakes and the Vols had to capitalize on any opportunity. Down 21-10, coming off Hyatt’s touchdown catch Mac Jones hit John Metchie for a 45 yard completion that Bryce Thompson had a great chance to pick off and couldn’t. Instead of Vol ball it became 28-10 Tide.

Third and 3 at the Alabama 16 on the Vols field goal drive — You don’t beat Alabama kicking field goals. You needed a touchdown there. I don’t blame Pruitt for kicking the field goal. But the third down call was so timid. Tennessee runs the ball on 3rd and 8 for a yard. They get Alabama with a penalty to replay the down at 3rd and 3 and run it again for a yard making it 4th and 2. Give yourself a chance to make a first down.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

417 — Number of passing yards given up by Tennessee on Saturday. The Vol defense is struggling. The last three weeks Tennessee has given up 762 yards through the air and the defense hasn’t recorded an interception.

28 — Number of points scored by the opponents defense the last 10 quarters. Defenses have scored 4 touchdowns off turnovers. Tennessee can’t continue to give away points.

234 — The number of points scored by Alabama in the last five games as they have outscored the Vols by 159 points in those wins with an average score of 47-13 in those games.

26.8 — Average yards per catch by freshman Jalin Hyatt in his five receptions this season.

GAMEBALL

Jalin Hyatt had a touchdown and nearly had a second on his best day as a Vol. The freshman receiver is averaging over 26 yards a catch in 5 games. He showed talent wise he belonged on the field Saturday and he gets my game ball.

BIGGEST CONCERN/QUESTION MOVING FORWARD

Can this team use the open date the right way to really improve? Defensively, they have to get better in the secondary. They have to find a pass rush up front and they have to tackle better.

Offensively can Jarrett Guarantano play solid in the back half of the season like he did against Alabama and he did against Missouri and even South Carolina. Can he avoid the mistakes?

Then lastly will this staff commit to playing the youth on this roster? Pruitt said the gap with Alabama is closing and he as talked about the talent of the last recruiting class. Pruitt said they have to earn their way on the practice field. Can they do that during this open date especially at receiver and in the secondary.

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