Special Teams
Daniel: Shaky but mostly successful is how I would describe this group yesterday. There were two near disasters – the Florida punt return TD that was called back and the dropped punt by Cam Sutton inside the 10. But neither ended up hurting the Vols, so those can pass as cautionary tales. Aaron Medley was solid, hitting all three field goals. Matt Darr out-punted the Gators by nearly eight yards. Perhaps the most frustrating moment was UT having a chance to down a punt at 1, but Evan Berry caught it with a foot on the goal line. Neither team did very much in the return game. Florida’s go-ahead field goal was just a good kick. Not much UT could do on that. Not a bad day overall. Grade: B-
Houston: I thought that all of the special teams units played well enough to win yesterday. Aaron Medley hit on all three of his field goal attempts, Matt Darr punted eight times with a 43-yard average and the coverage units never let Andre Debose get free. Cam Sutton did muff a punt, but was able to quickly recover it immediately for no negative impact on the game and did a nice job of fielding a bouncing punt later in the game that probably saved the Vols about 15 yards of field position. Aaron Medley also did an excellent job of angling his kickoffs to the corner to limit what Florida was able to do in the return game, really giving the kick coverage unit an advantage. Grade: B
Reed: Darr had a decent day punting the ball and Aaron Medley is really, really good. He’s 8-10 on field goal attempts this year and was Tennessee’s only offense. He’s been a bright spot the last couple of games. Tennessee isn’t getting much from their returners and that held true in a game they desperately needed a spark. Sutton muffed, but recovered, a punt and Young averaged less than 20 yards per kick return. If you’re looking for a non-Medley bright spot, kick coverage was solid. Punt coverage was terrible on a return for a TD that was ultimately called back for a block in the back. If not for Medley, this unit would be flirting with a D. Grade: B-
