Upon Further Review: More steam

On a breezy, gray day on Rocky Top, Tennessee busted out its all-orange unis and finally brought the smoke Jeremy Pruitt has been looking for all season.

The Vols notched their first win over a FBS opponent with grit, execution and a little vigor, body-blowing the Bulldogs back into their kennel after a 60-minute fight.

“Our guys put on more steam,” Pruitt said.

“They fought hard. They’ve been busting their tail all fall, trying to play like we did today. We didn’t play perfect, but we found a way to win.”

This iteration of Tennessee is never going to win pretty. Getting the dub is all the matters, so beating Mississippi State 20-10 was beautifully ugly. Pruitt will take a blemished masterpiece every time right now. The Vols fought past the adversity of losing their starting quarterback to a concussion, committing a pair of red zone turnovers, seeing their starting inside linebacker get ejected and having a starting safety break his leg. They didn’t blink, though.

They executed a strong gameplan and finally took all their handwork from the practice field to the white lines. They had fun, too, and for a group that hasn’t had many reasons to smile the last few years, they were grinning like children on Saturday evening.

“It was just a good feeling,” Nigel Warrior said. “(Defensive line) coach (Tracy) Rocker talked about when we were younger, we all were that little boy who just wanted to play football. We came out and played like those little boys in the front yard.”

Each week, I’ll rewatch the tape so you don’t have to. Here’s a skinny dozen of notes, analysis and final thoughts…

1. Rapid report card grades!

QB: B

RB: B+

WR: A

TE: C+

OL: B

DL: A

LB: B

DB: A

ST: A

2. Five guys who I thought played well

A. WR Tyler Byrd

B. OLB Darrell Taylor

C. LG Trey Smith

D. FS Nigel Warrior

E. DL Matthew Butler

Truly, a bunch of guys could’ve qualified here, especially on defense. I thought Darel Middleton had his best showing in a Tennessee uniform, albeit in spot duty. Alontae Taylor was also the team’s best cornerback Saturday, in my eyes, especially in run support. Offensively, guys like Ramel Keyton and Jerrod Means made some critical blocks. Tim Jordan ran hard and Jarrett Guarantano was nearly perfect in relief. But the five guys I deemed above made the biggest impact for the Vols, and as I wrote postgame, it’s notable that all of them are members of the Butch Jones castoff-crew that has been maligned the last few seasons. Byrd had the big touchdown catch, but he also threw two critical blocks earlier on that drive to spring big runs. Taylor finally had his breakout game, and some of his best plays won't even show up in the boxscore, as the senior routinely sealed the edge to allow a teammate to make a play via backside pursuit. Case in point.

Smith made mincemeat of multiple Mississippi State defenders, nearly decapptating Cam Dantzler on one kick-out block. It was probably his best overall performance since his freshman season.

On the game-sealing touchdown drive, the Vols routinely ran behind Smith and Brandon Kennedy, with Jerome Carvin, who hadn't played OL since the Chattanooga game, tossing in some nice blocks as well.

Finally, Butler and Warrior made plays and were consistently in the right spots. Butler has become a reliable interior lineman this season, while Warrior has strung together the best two performances of his career in back-to-back weeks.

3. Five guys who’d like Saturday back

A. QB Brian Maurer

B. CB Bryce Thompson

C. RT Darnell Wright

D. Tennessee’s freshman linebackers

E. Joe Moorehead

Obviously, this list was much harder to cobble together. Maurer had his moments, but he made two bad freshman mistakes in the red zone, one in which came immediately after a concussion. Maurer got up awkwardly after he was helicoptered on a designed run, yet he was never checked out by trainers and stayed in the game for three more plays, including the pick in the end zone. That's not a great look for the Vols there. Earlier in the half, Maurer was totally baited on his first interception, deciding pre-snap he was going to Jauan Jennings without recognizing State’s bracket coverage.

Elsewhere, no one on Tennessee’s defense was truly “bad,” but Thompson was just meh. He had a sack on a corner blitz but he also allowed several short receptions because he lost outside leverage. Similarly, both Henry To’oto’o and Quavaris Crouch had some rough snaps in pass coverage Saturday. Pruitt had no issue with the targeting call that To’oto’o drew in the second half, but more concerning is the way teams continue to pick on Tennessee’s inside linebackers in coverage. State had little success throwing the ball overall yesterday, but the two quarterbacks did go 4-of-4 for 52 yards in targets against To’oto’o and Crouch.

Moorhead’s inclusion here is a bit tongue-and-cheek, but it certainly surprised me that the Bulldogs opted to go with Tommy Stevens for the entire first half when Garrett Shrader has been the more productive guy all season. The move looked even dumber in the second half, too, as Shrader started to breakdown Tennessee’s defense with his legs. I have no idea if the Bulldogs would’ve won the game with Shrader at quarterback for four quarters, but they certainly would’ve been more efficient offensively if the freshman saw snaps all four quarters.

4. Tennessee averaged just 4.3 yards per carry on Saturday, and that number actually dips to 3.9 when you take away Jennings’ busted play that went for a 22-yard scramble. And yet, there was progress (small, but still) in the run game. Smith was excellent moving bodies, and Kennedy was solid, too. Jordan had a nice jumpcut on his rushing touchdown, and Chandler ran hard, typically falling forward.

The Vols were able to hammer home a victory with their late-game drive that started on their own 9-yard line. They went 91 yards, with all the early success coming on the ground.

These are three running plays in succession. I can’t remember the last time Tennessee blocked that well on three straight running plays.

One play? Sure. But this is three consecutive snaps with most guys getting a hat-on-a-hat. Smith is moving people. Carvin is pushing forward. Byrd has a key seal block. Guys were working in unison and physically finishing blocks. It’s a positive sign and something I’m sure Will Friend and Jim Chaney hope to build on.

“That last drive there, it was a character drive,” Pruitt said. “We ate up a lot of clock and put a touchdown on the board.”

5. Sack party.

Tennessee’s inability to pressure the quarterback has been a storyline all season, but the Vols wrecked havoc against Mississippi State. They had eight sacks in five games coming into Saturday, and they nearly doubled that total in 60 minutes. The last time Tennessee had seven sacks was in 2016 against UMass. It hasn’t done it in an SEC game in more than a decade.

What was interesting about all the sacks was the variety of pressure packages Tennessee dialed up. The front-four played well, especially against the run, but Pruitt and Derrick Ansley opted to call some creative blitzes to generate a rush. Outside of Taylor’s late-game sack in a 3-man front, Tennessee sent extra bodies at the quarterback.

The Vols have utilized this single down lineman look throughout the season, but instead of Crouch coming on a stunt or twist like he’s typically done, he drops back into zone coverage and a corner flies off the short edge in a delayed blitz. It worked perfectly.

Here, Tennessee actually calls a double-corner blitz, which isn’t very common. State is immediately confused and it leads to another sack.

This is a pretty typical pressure package for teams, but the Vols don’t drop Taylor into coverage that often. Butler finishes the play late, but credit to the secondary here as State’s quarterback had no where to go with the football.

In all, these various looks led to lots of quarterback hits and takedowns for the Vols. Pruitt was very complimentary of his staff and their gameplan postgame, and he’s right. They out-schemed State and turned an issue into an advantage Saturday. The extra bodies helped, and so did better coverage in the backend.

6. The Vols had two tackles for loss against UGA. They had three negative plays in five snaps against State. They set the tone early, showing pressure on the first snap of the game.

Count the bodies. The Vols are daring Stevens to beat them by stacking the box. I thought they would play a bunch of Cover-1, and while they didn’t do it quite as much as I expected, when Tennessee loaded the box, Kylin Hill had no room to operate. Allow Pruitt to explain.

“Our guys done a great job up front. We controlled the line of scrimmage. Stayed in our gaps. We did a nice job tackling. We made some tackles in space.”

7. At one point Saturday, the Vols called nine straight runs, including three straight late to end the first half to setup Brent Cimaglia’s 49-yard field goal. Because of Mississippi State’s inability to move the football, I understood Pruitt’s conservative approach to just try and grab three points to make it a two-score game.

“We didn’t want to make a mistake, so that’s kind of the way we called the game there,” Pruitt said.

“Can we win a bunch of games like that? Probably not. But that’s the way we needed to play to win this game.”

He’s right, but still, there’s a process vs. results battle here. Settling for a long kick is not ideal. Just ask Georgia. There are safe plays to try and gain a few more yards to make it a much more manageable kick, and that should be the approach in the future.

8. I wrote about the day of atonement for Tennessee’s 2016 and 2017 classes Saturday afternoon, so I won’t belabor that point again here, but I will just add that Jarrett Guarantano’s best throw of the afternoon wasn’t the dime to Ramel Keyton, although it was a perfect pass.

No, it was Guarantano’s third-down conversion to Jordan.

With Neyland Stadium screaming for him to get rid of the ball, Guarantano didn’t panic in the pocket, waited for his outlet to get open and made a quick, decisive throw to convert a key third down. It might’ve looked simple, but those same easy throws have been anything but for No. 2 in 2019. On Saturday, it helped continue a drive that ultimately iced the game.

9. I feel bad for Trevon Flowers, who was playing a nice game Saturday. It’s been a slow start to Flowers’ sophomore season, but after a strong week of practice, he was rewarded with the start against the Bulldogs. He responded with a couple tackles in run support and an interception where he suffered the leg injury. This is the second straight season that Flowers has been snakebitten by a freak injury on a pass he picked off. Just bizarre and sucks for him. Here’s hoping he returns to good health next season.

10. The last word = a dance party.

“We’ve been close a few times, and close isn’t good enough,” Pruitt said.

“Our guys found a way today. It was good to see our kids enjoying themselves in the locker room. They work extremely hard and did a good job executing the gameplan today.”

11. Cue the music.