Advanced Box Score: Tennessee 71, Kent State 0

Only 6 points in the second half? This team is obviously declining...

Over the last decade or so, Tennessee fans have endured a 6-point win over South Alabama, an overtime win against App State, a 9-point win over Ohio, a 4-point win over UMass, an 11-point win over Charlotte, and a 8-point loss to Georgia State. So if you’re expecting Vol faithful to apologize for a 73-point thrashing of a G5 team, you’re gonna have a long wait. Tennessee’s beat down of Kent State was every bit as thorough as the score indicates, as backed up by the advanced stats.

Five Factor Box Score

A havoc rate of every third play, nine trips inside the 40 and nearly a TD each time, with a short field to work with? That’s how you score 60+ in a half. But it’s the Vols’ 63% success rate to keep tracking over the next few games. In 2022, UT faced LSU, Florida, and Alabama in a row, and kept a +50% success rate through each of those games. Tennessee has a trip to Oklahoma this week, and after an off week, a trip to Arkansas before hosting Florida and Alabama—a similar stretch to ‘22. This stretch will go a long way toward deciding the ultimate fate of this Tennessee squad, and if the offense can continue to hum like this, it will be a good few weeks.

Rushing Report

If I told you prior to kickoff that Tennessee would not only cover the -49.5 spread, but also hit the 62.5 over by themselves, you’d probably assume Nico threw for over 300 or so yards (at least that’s what I’d assume). But in reality, Nico didn’t even throw for 200, and there was not a single 100-yard receiver. It was the running game that Tennessee really dominated, with DeSean Bishop and Dylan Sampson both rushing for 100+, and Peyton Lewis going for another 99. Overall the Vols ran for 456 yards on a 8.5/rush average. Those second-level and open-field yards above tell the story, as seven Tennessee ball carriers (including three QBs) had a long rush of over 10 yards.

Player Usage/PPA

I really only show the Kent State PPA report to make this point: this is the fourth straight game (going back to the Citrus Bowl) that Tennessee’s defense has held the opposing QB to negative cumulative PPA. Remember that PPA is a measure of how well your play is putting the team in a position to score. So for four straight games, UT has forced the opposing QB into actively hurting his team’s chances to score. That’s dominance.

A week ago, Nico Iamaleava had most of his PPA come from running the ball, as NC State sold out against the pass. But against Chattanooga and now Kent State, Nico’s PPA production has come from the pass game, which is a good sign. We know (or at least I believe) that Nico could simply out-athlete those lesser teams, but learning to stay in the pocket and deliver the ball is an important part of Nico’s growth as a QB, and we’ll need to see him beat teams both ways as the calendar turns to SEC play.