Receivers/Tight Ends
Daniel: They had their moments, but this group didn’t do enough to bail out the rest of the struggling offense. The most glaring example was Josh Malone’s drop in the red zone that stalled a first-half drive for the Vols and made them settle for a field goal. All-in-all, there just wasn’t a lot of separation against Florida’s man-to-man defense. All of their catches came in tight coverage and there wasn’t much room to run after the catch. Johnathon Johnson ran a couple routes and made two nice catches. Pig Howard battled as well. He stuck with that fourth-down play on the final drive and made what could’ve been a huge play in the game. Quiet days from Ethan Wolf , Marquez North and Jason Croom, however. Again, UT needed more. Grade: C-
Houston: What a disappointing afternoon from this group. For all of the talent that this group of players possesses, they have disappeared at times in big games. In Tennessee’s three losses, Marquez North has just 13 catches for 108 yards and one touchdown – Tennessee has to find a way to get more out of him moving forward. Josh Malone dropped what looked to be a sure touchdown on a curl-route against Vernon Hargreaves that would have obviously changed the complexion of the game. Pig Howard appears to be playing much better since his move back to the slot position, but what happens when Von Pearson gets back to 100%? As a group, they are struggling to get free when defenders press them at the line of scrimmage and are failing to create separation from defensive backs down the field. The tight ends only had three catches for 19 yards, so not much from them either. As a group and as an offense, they need one of these guys to develop as a go-to-guy and it simply hasn’t happened yet. Grade: C-
Reed: Vol receivers not named Pig Howard struggled mightily. North disappeared in the second half, Malone had a costly drop and no one was able to find many yards after the catch. They need Pearson and Smith to get healthy quickly. Croom, after a big game at Georgia, was open at times but Worley never found him. The tight ends looked like they stayed in to block more than normal. They weren’t really a factor in the passing game and were ineffective when blocking. Pig saves this group from a D. Grade: C-
