Special Teams
Daniel: The nice punt return by Isaiah McKenzie really hurt UT. That seemed to snap a lot of UT’s momentum and set up a Georgia score. Cam Sutton obviously wishes he could take the play back where he let the punt bounce down to the 1, but it was a 50/50 type call and he made his best guess. Hard to fault him too much for that. The onside kick had a pretty good design, but it didn’t make it 10 yards. Outside of that, the Vols had a pretty good day. Matt Darr had three punts over 50 and averaged 44.6 yards per punt. Outside of the McKenzie return, the coverage did a good job overall in all phases. The kickoff return game was better as well and Aaron Medley made maybe his best kick of his UT career – a 46-yarder that gave UT the early edge. Grade: B
Houston: Probably the best performance of the season from this group outside of the punt return by McKenzie (although I did see a block in the back that sprung him). Kick coverage was solid and Matt Darr had his best day of the year. Cam Sutton sold a late return on a punt that Georgia was able to down at the one-yard line. Tennessee would ultimately fumble that ball and give Georgia an easy seven points, but that was just a really nice job by Georgia’s punt team. Aaron Medley looks like a solid placekicker and will only get better. Grade: B+
Reed: With the exception of McKenzie’s long punt return, the Vols played pretty well in this area. Darr had his best game of the year after struggling in practice all week. Medley hit a big 46-yard field goal on the first drive of the game and is quietly 5-7 on the year. There were a couple of occasions Sutton should have probably fielded the ball but made the call to let it roll – which cost the Vols some valuable field position. Devrin Young had a couple of decent returns after a quiet year and Tennessee’s kick coverage was also better than expected. Grade: B-
