Befuddling win

Before the game I never saw the local press work so hard to sell an opponent. Everyone was expecting a blowout and so the press tried to find reasons why the Volunteers could keep it close. I freely admit I thought we would win by more than 10, but so did Tennessee fans because a lot fewer of them came down than have in years past.

QB: This might be the worst game I have ever seen The Savior (15) have. He ran fairly well, but badly underthrew the ball on his pick, fumbled when fighting for extra yardage when it was not necessary (he did not have two hands on the ball in a crowed either) which reheartened the Vols late, took a sack when he held onto the ball too long, and generally just looked uncomfortable in the pocket. The big hit on their safety may get the press, but he was not finding receivers and still for all his running ability he is not a good scrambler in that he is not good at judging when the pass play has broken down and he should just run for what he can get.
GRADE: C+

RB: Moody (21) and Rainey (3) played more than I expected. In fact Rainey got more work than Demps (2) - which is fine with me, he is a little stronger running inside if not as strong (turns out Demps was coming out of the flu, as were a few other players- but not an excuse). They got 128 yards on just 16 carries. They were under utilized, Tebow ran 24 times (more on that later). The fullback T.J. Pridemore (45) was on the field, but for only 2-3 plays.
GRADE: A They averaged 8 yards a carry with a limited passing attack and predictable playcalling.

WR: Deonte Thompson (6) was out, and we missed him. We played Brandon James (25) at WR (although he moved into the backfield in motion occasionally) with Cooper (11) and Nelson (83). For all that talk about the young receivers we basically played just those three with Hernandez (81) and occasionally a back (including Moody) split wide. The only other WR I even saw was Frankie Hammond Jr. (85) and that was just for a few plays late. Cooper and Nelson each had a third down catch to keep a drive alive, Cooper also dropped a pass right at the goalline.
GRADE: D 8 catches for 74 yards is less than ten yards a catch.

TE: Herandez was our leading receiver, but with just four catches and only 26 yards. Part of that was he caught a couple of shovel passes from the triple option that went nowhere. He was not especially noticeable - he was okay blocking, of which he did a fair amount.
GRADE: C- He suffers for his standards. He had a okay game for a generic TE, but we know he is capable of much more. I increased that from a D+ when I learned he had the flu

OL: I was right, Carl Johnson (57) is our right tackle (James Wilson (66) is the guard). The line played pretty well - holes were opened. When did not pass much and there was some pressure when we did, but that was usually when the coverage was good and Tebow had to look to secondary receivers. Mo Hurt (74) and Matt Patchan (71) got a little time.
GRADE: B Tebow did have to move some.

DL: Holy cow is our DL different with Jaye Howard (6) and Omar Hunter (99) playing DT rather than Lawrence Marsh (90) and Terron Sanders (92). When Marsh and Sanders were missing Tennessee ran all over us. Justin Trattou (94) no longer starts at DE, but got plenty of time (some at DT) and William Green (96) worked in the rotation too. DT Brandon Antwine (47) got some good time, there was even Duke Lemmens (44) sighting. We have a bunch more guys coming in and out than last year, but that has not produced great results. Besides the yards up the middle when Howard and Hunter were in, our DEs were also not doing a good job of containment. Not just against the run, but when Tennessee moved the pocket their QB found time. It also was affective in preventing us from putting much pressure on him (as did the few passes they attempted). And lets not have Jermaine Cunningham (49) covering TEs deep anymore hmm?
GRADE: C+ Without Marsh and Sanders, A- with

LB: The top five all played. They made no memorable plays (well Spikes (51) missed a tackle, but someone else got the RB). Tennessee did find some running room against us and got some good yards from short passes. However overall Tennessee was not busting out big plays all over the place.
GRADE: B+

DB: They were barely tested this game. Their QB, Jonathan Crompton, is pretty bad (3 picks the week before). The only time they tried to go deep was the Ahmad Black (35) pick. However on both that play, and the Haden (5) pick the receivers got some separation (from Jenkins (1) on the Black pick) and a great throw might have been completed. Will Hill (10) is definitely our nickel back and lines up over the slot receiver. I never saw Markihe Anderson (14).
GRADE: A At the end of the day their receivers only had 7 catches

ST: Brandon James had a big return at the start of the game to set up a fieldgoal. He also made a brilliant play on a punt, waiving for a faircatch and then running up to make the coverage think he was going to field it and close when it fact it bounced at the 2 and rolled into the endzone Caleb Sturgis (19) is now apparently our kicker and kicked a kickoff out of bounds. We also gave up some yards to a reverse return. We punted just once (which shows you despite the sloppy feel we were not the terrible).
GRADE: B

Coaching: Even a good coach can have a bad game, and boy did we. We made several questionable moves (why did we accept a penalty after stopping them on third down the first UT drive?) and ran the same gimmicky plays over and over again in an uninspired offensive gameplan. Most of our gameplan seemed to involve running inside, too often with Tebow (24 carries). Meyer's latest obsession seems to be lining up the shotgun and then having Tebow and a back run forward towards the line right next to each other and sometimes handing off and others not. It is not a bad plan and the misdirection can confuse a defense - if they are not expecting it. Of course we do it far too frequently for it to be any type of surprise. That has always been Meyer's weakness. He loves his trick plays and rather than run normal offensive plays and sucker defenses in with tricks he makes them a staple so they don't catch opponents by surprise. The same is true of the shovel pass. We stopped running it all the time the way we did his first year and it started working, but now we run it more frequently and today it got us nothing. Meanwhile we did not do some basics that might have worked better. Such as getting outside with our quick backs. It worked for UCLA and us the few times we did. We also could have tried to incorporate our receivers in a bit more, and maybe develop one of the youngsters. We never tried to use Cooper's height in any way either.

Meyer was not the only one who had a lackluster game. I usually like our defensive coordinator, Charlie Strong, but the rotations we used today were horrible. I don't know if Marsh and Sanders were dinged, but why weren't out starters starting? It became very obviously very quickly that we needed Marsh and Sanders on the field to completely stop them, but the backups played more and never once did we seem to try mixing and matching a starter with a backup. I am hoping we were rotation guys so much because of the heat and understand any good defense needs to rotate, but our starters were off the field a surprising large amount of the time. More annoying they were off the field a big moments. When Tennessee was on our doorstep Dustin Doe (32) was in the middle rather than Brandon Spikes. That is in no way optimal.
GRADE: D We were outcoached (mainly because of Monte). We were just the much more talented at home and slogged to a ten point win. Their plan seemed to be just play conservative to avoid a serious beating and maybe be close for a miracle finish.

Bottom line: We won the game and that is the important part, ask USC if you don't believe me. And it was never much in doubt. You have a game such as this in a championship season and I would rather have it now were we can correct before the meat of our schedule - better than say in Baton Rouge. We will lose a few first place votes, but stay in first because unless you lose you almost never fall. We won, but with the hype it felt unsatisfying. Watch SEC games later the talk was how Tennessee showed they are not so bad. That is not the message we wanted people to take out of this game. Not for recruiting and not for the rest of the season. We seem more beatable now to the kids we play for the rest of the season. And if Lane Kiffin is not so bright his father is and showed everyone a way to slow out offense down. Funny how quickly an NFL mind could solve the spread that has been burning through college.