Tennessee walked into a stadium named after one of it’s favored sons, faced down an old rival, and dominated over both on the field and in the stands. Or as the kids say, walk in your trap take over your trap.
Five Factor Box Score
Tennessee’s defense allowed less than a field goal on six scoring opportunities. That’s the epitome of bend but don’t break D. And while the 46% success rate allowed is somewhat concerning, as long as the defense is holding their opponents out of the endzone while the UT offense finishes their drives, the success rate won’t matter much. The 22% havoc rate is nice too, even when down from week 1’s ridiculous 50%+ havoc rate. The offense held up their end of the deal too, with a scorching 6+ points per opportunity, basically a touchdown every trip into the Tech 40.
I’d also like to point out that all of the numbers above are based on the five factors that are most highly correlated with winning football games. None of them are related to penalties. There has been a lot made of the number of penalties UT had Saturday night. I made the poor decision of hopping on Twitter for a few minutes during the game, and from the discourse there you’d have thought that the Vols were down three scores instead of the other way around, all based on a few penalties (that the broadcast couldn’t seem to replay, btw).
There is no statistical correlation between penalties and winning/losing games. There just isn’t. I know you want there to be, because “undisciplined football” or whatever. Because your high school coach would’ve made you run gassers until you puked over some of those penalties, and by gawd these kids today…. But there just isn’t a correlation.
Tennessee is the most penalized team in the Power 4 over the last four seasons. It’s also been over a decade since Tennessee has had the level of success they’ve had over those four seasons. I’m not saying that penalties are good or desirable. There’s no excuse for the offense to false start when they’re the ones controlling the snap. And drawing an unsportsmanlike because you flex on a guy that just gained 12 yards is infuriatingly dumb.
I can also imagine situations where penalties can affect the statistics that do matter: success rate is basically a measure of how good a job you’re doing staying ahead of the chains, and a holding call or false start can get you off schedule. Field position is a factor correlated to winning, and penalties can effect that (although UT won the field position battle easily, despite the rash of penalties).
But many Vol fans want to know how we fix the penalties issue, and the answer is an uncomfortable one: we don’t, because they seemingly aren’t coach’s priority, and they ultimately don’t decide who wins or loses. For your own mental health it’s probably best to sit with that a while and find peace with it.
(And now the group chat will roast me with every holding call the rest of the season.)
Rushing Report
Honestly both teams had a fairly productive night running the ball, and the Jackets needed it because Alberto Mendoza is not his brother. Should we be worried that GT had a pretty good night on the ground? I’m going to say no, since Tennessee was even more effective rushing, and grinding a few rushing yards here and there was the only thing Tech seemed to have going for them on the night.
Player Usage & PPA
If you want to know how Tennessee planned to protect their freshman QB in his first road start, take a look at the usage numbers. Just 38% usage for the signal caller and a combined 58% for the RBs.
I always point out that PPA isn’t a great individual stat, but you can tell some important things from it. For example, despite the lowish usage number, Faizon made the most of his opportunities with 13.2 PPA. I’d also like to point out two players whose PPA numbers are making an argument for them to get a higher usage share. First Duane Morris, who has had a higher usage share later in games which might mean he’s taking advantage of a worn-down defense. But he has flashed on many of those carries, and it might be worth giving him a few more early carries to see what happens. Also Radarious Jackson, who had 4 receptions on 4 targets and more PPA than anyone except Faizon and DeSean Bishop, but not enough usage to show up on the chart above. The kid might deserve a few more targets.
And once again, when the opposing QB’s PPA is negative, you probably won the game.