Tennessee turned in its best performance of the Josh Heupel era Saturday, dominating No. 25 LSU start-to-finish in Baton Rouge.
The Vols jump out to a 20-0 first half lead before cruising to a, 40-13, victory over Brian Kelly’s first LSU team.
If you need a reminder on how Pro Football Focus works, read the opening of the Ball State grades.
Let’s see how the Vols graded out.
Elite grade = 90-100, All-Conference = 85-89, Starter = 70-84, Backup = 60-69, Replaceable = 60 >
Offensive Grades (minimum of 20 plays — 20% of offensive plays)
WR Bru McCoy — 78.5 (83 plays)
LT Jeremiah Crawford — 75.4 (64 plays)
RB Jabari Small — 73.0 (50 plays)
RT Darnell Wright — 71.1 (82 plays)
WR Jalin Hyatt — 70.0 (69 plays)
C Cooper Mays — 69.1 (82 plays)
QB Hendon Hooker — 67.3 (83 plays)
RB Jaylen Wright — 66.6 (25 plays)
LG Jerome Carvin — 58.7 (82 plays)
WR Ramel Keyton — 57.3 (80 plays)
LT Dayne Davis — 54.6 (19 plays)
RG Javontez Spraggins — 54.6 (82 plays)
TE Princeton Fant — 52.2 (43 plays)
TE Jacob Warren — 42.0 (50 plays)
Let’s start with Tennessee’s two highest graded players. Bru McCoy has lived up to any and all expectations and was absolutely excellent against LSU. McCoy stepped up in a massive way with Cedric Tillman out and put up Tillman numbers Saturday, catching seven passes for 140 yards.
Speaking of stepping up for injured players, Jeremiah Crawford was absolutely fantastic in place of the injured Gerald Mincey. That’s the former junior college transfers best performance in a Tennessee uniform.
The only real negative on Tennessee’s offense from the PFF grades were the tight end’s performance. Neither Princeton Fant nor Jacob Warren graded out well.
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Defensive Grades (minimum 14 plays — 20% of defensive plays)
S Trevon Flowers — 73.9 (73 plays)
DE Byron Young — 73.5 (50 plays)
STAR Wesley Walker — 72.3 (25 plays)
DE Joshua Josephs — 70.6 (17 plays)
DE Kurrott Garland — 69.6 (15 plays)
DE Roman Harrison — 68.7 (42 plays)
DT Da’Jon Terry — 68.0 (19 plays)
DE Bryson Eason — 63.3 (21 plays)
DT La’Trell Bumphus — 63.1 (50 plays)
DT Elijah Simmons — 62.9 (15 plays)
DT Omari Thomas — 62.3 (28 plays)
STAR Tamarion McDonald — 61.6 (53 plays)
LB Jeremy Banks — 61.6 (46 plays)
CB Kamal Hadden — 60.6 (74 plays)
S Jaylen McCollough — 57.6 (77 plays)
LB Aaron Beasley — 55.2 (43 plays)
LB Solon Page III — 54.4 (25 plays)
LB Juwan Mitchell — 53.7 (44 plays)
DE Tyler Baron — 53.2 (34 plays)
CB Christian Charles — 42.9 (70 plays)
You see Rodney Garner’s impact pretty quickly when you look at the PFF grades. Nine of Tennessee’s top 11 graded defensive players were defensive linemen. A truly remarkable performance from that group.
Credit to Trevon Flowers for turning in an excellent performance. The senior safety still isn’t a great player but he has made clear improvements entering this season.
I was surprised Aaron Beasley’s grade was as low as it was. I thought the senior linebacker played well in his nine tackle, 1.5 tackle per loss performance.
