2. Joshua Josephs
Moving from the secondary to the defensive line, Tennessee Football wasn’t as hair-on-fire up front as it has been all year. The unit was still solid, though, and it’s hard for the defensive line to be like that in every game. When they did need to make the plays, though, they made it, and numerous people get credit for those plays.
Omari Thomas had a key sack. James Pearce Jr. had one as well while bringing pressure all night. Joshua Josephs, however, was the star of the unit because of how big his big play was and the impact it had on the game. That alone can be enough to elevate a player, and it did that for Josephs here.
For the game, Josephs had four total tackles, two of which were solo. The most important one, though, was a strip-sack he had in the third quarter. Rocky Top had just failed to score on its third trip to the red zone and gave the ball back to Kentucky trailing 10-7. You just felt that they were going to find a way to choke that game away in this moemnt.
That’s when Josephs stepped up, and doing it then warrants him a lot of praise. He was able to set up the Vols the ball deep in Kentucky territory, and they finally cashed in, driving down the field and capping it off with a touchdown run from Sampson to put them up 14-10. They led the rest of the way.
NEXT: Torchbearer #1 – Nico Iamaleava
