Tennessee cruised to a 38-6 win over Bowling Green. Who or what group impressed in week one? Who didn't? And who is still an unknown? We discuss it in our mid-week Volquest stock report.
| Column 1 | Column 2 |
|---|---|
📈 | Theo Jackson — The senior had his best outing as a Vol in the season opener recording a career high 11 tackles, 2.5 TFL’s, and 3 PBU’s equalling how many he had a season ago. Jackson played fast and seemed really solid in the nickel spot to start his final season as a Vol. |
📉 | The passing game — Austin and Brent both agree. Joe Milton didn’t see the field well enough. He held the ball too long at times. The receivers dropped some passes. They had their moments where they couldn’t get open and the Vol quarterbacks were sacked 3 times. It’s why Josh Heupel didn’t single out any one failing in his passing offense but noted it was too inconsistent across the board. |
↔️ | The line of scrimmage — Tennessee wasn’t bad in the trenches in any way, shape or form. They ran the ball with great effectiveness and defensively the d-line spent much of the night in the Bowling Green backfield. But the trenches are stock stagnant for me because of who they played. Bowling Green isn’t very good and so how good Tennessee is in the line of scrimmage is still very much unknown. |
📈 | Darnell Wright — In his first start at left tackle, Wright played a clean game except for one holding penalty. Wright is leaner, moving better than he has at any point in his Vol career and is showing his athletic ability. Thursday night was tangible evidence as to how good of an off-season he has had. |
↔️ | Byron Young — The newcomer who generated so much buzz in the spring and again in fall camp is stuck in neutral as he awaits word from the NCAA on whether or not he is eligible to play this week. If Young ruled out this week, he will definitely return next week for Tennessee Tech and begin his college career. |
