Better Run Defense
Tennessee’s run defense still isn’t where it needs to be, but they’ve looked quite a bit better through five games than they did at any point last season.
Through five games this year, the Vols are allowing just 158 rushing yards per game. That number has gone up over the last two weeks after Tennessee gave up 201 yards and 251 yards to Florida and Georgia respectively, but overall the Vols have looked better stopping the run this year than they did last season.
Last year, Tennessee gave up an average of just over 251 rushing yards per contest. They allowed 200 or more rushing yards in seven of their 12 games, and they never once held an opponent to under 115 rushing yards in a game, not even teams like Indiana State or UMass. This season, the Vols held UTEP to just 95 yards rushing and held West Virginia to 118 rushing yards.
Not only have the Vols shown improvement at stopping teams overall on the ground, but they’ve been able to contain specific running backs as well.
So far this year, Tennessee hasn’t allowed a player to run for over 100 yards on them. They did let three different Georgia players gain 50 or more yards on them, so maybe this is a moot point in the grand scheme of things. But the Vols had someone run for 100 or more yards on them seven times last season.
