Coaching
Daniel: Like Butch Jones said, a win is a win. And huge credit for navigating a tricky pair of games – contests that Tennessee could’ve lost if the Vols weren’t focused or prepared. The game plans made sense on both sides of the ball. I continued to like the defensive variety, both mixing up formation and coverages. Offensively, the team had good rhythm early, but lost some of it in the second half. I had a few nitpicks, such as rushing Medley on the field to attempt a field goal instead of taking a timeout in the fourth quarter. But all-in-all, especially when you consider how many injuries it had to work around, the staff got the job done. Grade: B+
Houston: I thought both the offensive and defensive schemes were good in the first half. Even though the defense gave up a touchdown on the opening drive, they really settled in after that and made things very tough for the ASU offense. The first half was solid offensively, but I thought the Vols could have adjusted the play-calling in the second half to help protect Worley once ASU began to blitz with predictable regularity. The team looked a little deflated after Pearson and Wolf went down, but the staff was able to keep them focused and avoid a meltdown. Grade: B
Reed: There’s not much to complain about here. The Vols showed a variety of formation on defense and were creative in the ways they used their speed and athleticism edge. For the most part, they had players in position to contain the dangerous Knighten. On offense, the staff did a nice job of simply putting the ball in the hands of their playmakers. No need to outthink this one, the Vols got the job done and didn’t get too fancy. Grade: A
