PFF Grades: Tennessee at Oklahoma

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 14 plays — 20% of offensive plays)

WR Dont’e Thornton — 91.3 (27 plays)

RB Dylan Sampson — 72.9 (49 plays)

TE Holden Staes — 68.7 (46 plays)

WR Bru McCoy — 66.0 (63 plays)

LT Larry Johnson III — 65.3 (41 plays)

RB DeSean Bishop — 65.2 (24 plays)

QB Nico Iamaleava — 63.4 (75 plays)

C Cooper Mays — 62.3 (75 plays)

TE Miles Kitselman — 59.6 (58 plays)

LG Andrej Karic — 57.2 (75 plays)

WR Squirrel White — 65.4 (42 plays)

WR Chris Brazzell — 54.0 (29 plays)

TE Ethan Davis — 52.2 (14 plays)

OT John Campbell — 51.5 (34 plays)

RG Javontez Spraggins — 47.6 (75 plays)

OT Dayne Davis — 47.6 (75 plays)

Dont’e Thornton earned the best grade of anyone on Tennessee’s offense by a long slot and that was of little surprise as he was one of just two receivers (Bru McCoy) that was able to create explosive plays. Thornton had another 50-yard catch that was called back for holding.

While it wasn’t a massive game on the stat sheet for Dylan Sampson, 24 carries for 92 yards and a touchdown, his PFF grade shows how well he ran against a strong Oklahoma defense on a night Tennessee didn’t create a ton of holes.

It was no surprise to see most of Tennessee’s offensive lineman earn poor grades but there were still some interesting notes there. Larry Johnson had a much better grade than John Campbell— who he replaced in the second quarter. And while I wasn’t surprised that Tennessee’s offensive tackles struggled, I was surprised to see Javontez Spraggins struggle.

More From RTI: Josh Heupel Explains Tennessee’s Conservative Offensive Play Calling Against Oklahoma

Defensive Grades (minimum of 13 plays — 20% of defensive plays)

LEO Josh Josephs — 94.3 (30 plays)

DT Elijah Simmons — 82.0 (25 plays)

CB Jermod McCoy — 80.8 (72 plays)

DT Omarr Norman-Lott — 75.7 (21 plays)

LB Keenan Pili — 73.8 (56 plays)

S Will Brooks — 73.4 (54 plays)

LEO James Pearce Jr — 73.2 (54 plays)

S Christian Charles — 73.2 (21 plays)

DT Jaxson Moi — 70.5 (15 plays)

DT Bryson Eason — 70.4 (36 plays)

DT Omari Thomas — 69.8 (26 plays)

S Jakobe Thomas — 69.7 (19 plays)

CB Rickey Gibson — 68.1 (68 plays)

DE Tyre West — 67.9 (20 plays)

DE Dominic Bailey — 63.5 (48 plays)

S Andre Turrentine — 60.3 (59 plays)

LB Arion Carter — 59.9 (59 plays)

STAR Christian Harrison — 57.4 (56 plays)

LB Jeremiah Telander — 55.4 (13 plays)

Let’s start by looking at some snap counts. I was curious what the rotating would look like in Tennessee’s first true test of the season. The Vols went 10 deep on the defensive line with Daevin Hobbs’ 11 snaps not quite making the list. Tennessee didn’t rotate a ton at linebacker where Pili and Carter played the vast majority of reps. The Vols rotated very little at cornerback but did play four different players a good bit of snaps at safety.

So how about that defensive line? Seven of the top 11 defensive players were defensive linemen. Josh Josephs was absolutely fantastic and how about Elijah Simmons making plays?! Speaking of, Jayson Jenkins played just five plays but made the tackle for the safety during it.

One note on Arion Carter, his pass coverage really dragged down his grade. He earned and 81.5 tackling grade and a 91.8 pass rush grade.