Both sides had new faces everywhere, particularly on offense, as they were each breaking in a new quarterback. Tennessee football was the one to come out on top against the Syracuse Orange in convincing fashion amidst all the questions surrounding the matchup, winning 45-26 in a game that wasn’t even that close.
Passing game was good but could be crisper
It was Joey Aguilar’s first game starting for the Vols, and he completed 16-of-28 passes for 247 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions while rushing for another 34 yards. The deep balls were hitting too, as he found Braylon Staley for a 73-yard touchdown pass and was able to consistently move the ball.
However, Aguilar overthrew multiple easy swing and screen passes. He had more trouble on the short routes than he did over the middle or throwing the deep ball. When SEC play arrives, those easy passes will be crucial for the deep ball to be there, so he’s got a lot to work on before they face the Georgia Bulldogs in two weeks.
Tempo returned on offense…with new wrinkles
Maybe it was due to Aguilar being a quicker processor than Joe Milton III or Nico Iamaleava. It could be the new injury rule. For whatever reason, though, Tennessee football looked a lot faster on offense than it has looked the previous two years. In a typical Josh Heupel game, UT gained 495 yards of total offense despite only having the ball for 25 minutes.
In addition to the new quarterback and new rules, the offense showed a few new wrinkles. Heupel’s first play of the game was a quick slant to Mike Matthews, and the Vols worked the middle of the field a lot more in this one. That combined with a few more delayed screens could keep that 3-3-5 shell defense committed to taking away the deep ball a lot more honest.
Defense suffered injuries but looked solid
Jaxson Moi suffered an injury early in the game, and Rickey Gibson III also went down in the first half. Tennessee football did give up 377 yards, including 274 through the air. However, without James Pearce Jr., Omarr Norman-Lott, Omari Thomas, Elijah Simmons and Jermod McCoy, this unit made big plays.
Tim Banks brought back his blitz packages and came away with five sacks and seven tackles for a loss. Jeremiah Telander had an interception, and Nathan Robinson, filing in for Moi, forced a fumble that Colton Hood recovered and ran into the end zone for a score. UT gave up 26 points on 12 drives, which isn’t great, but they only allowed 4.49 yards per play, exactly what last year’s historic defense allowed.
Interior offensive line looked ready…despite shuffle
Glen Elarbee and Heupel had to reshuffle the offensive line due to the injury to right tackle David Sanders Jr., forcing Jesse Perry, who should have started at left guard, to move over to right tackle opposite Lance Heard. That made things even tougher for an interior offensive line that had to replace all three starters in Cooper Mays at center, Andrej Karic at left guard and Javontez Spraggins at right guard.
UT started Sam Pendleton at center, Wendell Moe Jr. at right guard and Shamurad Umarov at left guard. How did it work? the Vols gained 248 yards on the ground on just 38 carries. Star Thomas had 92 yards, DeSean Bishop had 82 yards, and Peyton Lewis had 38 yards. Bishop and Lewis each scored. Given all the questions surrounding the unit, the elite run blocking really stood out.
Penalties were way down
A problem with the Heupel offense, particularly when it runs tempo away from home, has always been limiting mistakes. Just last year, they surrendered 68.1 penalty yards per game, which was 119th in the nation. They’ve never been better than 99th under Heupel for a year, nor have they surrendered fewer than 62 penalty yards per game.
On Saturday, however, Tennessee football only surrendered 30 yards on four penalties, a dramatic improvement made even more impressive when you considere the reshuffled offensive line and nine new starters on offense we mentioned. If the Vols can keep things that clean the whole year, this team will be a lot better than anticipated.
