Tennessee football overcame another halftime deficit to knock off Kentucky 28-18 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.
If you need a reminder on how Pro Football Focus works, read the opening of the Chattanooga 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 >
More From RTI: Nico Iamaleava Turns In His Best Performance In Young Career Against Kentucky
Offensive Grades (minimum 16 plays — 20% of offensive plays)
QB Nico Iamaleava — 90.1 (84 plays)
TE Miles Kitselman — 74.0 (53 plays)
RB Dylan Sampson — 69.0 (64 plays)
WR Bru McCoy — 66.8 (51 plays)
RB Peyton Lewis — 66.3 (17 plays)
OG Jackson Lampley — 63.2 (19 plays)
TE Holden Staes — 61.7 (50 plays)
WR Chas Nimrod — 61.2 (25 plays)
WR Dont’e Thornton — 59.5 (48 plays)
C Cooper Mays — 59.2 (84 plays)
WR Mike Matthews — 58.9 (20 plays)
RT John Campbell — 58.7 (59 plays)
RG Javontez Spraggins — 58.6 (78 plays)
WR Chris Brazzell — 54.5 (47 plays)
LG Andrej Karic — 54.4 (71 plays)
WR Squirrel White — 54.3 (27 plays)
RT Dayne Davis — 51.1 (25 plays)
LT Lance Heard — 47.2 (84 plays)
Watching the game live and it felt like it was Nico Iamaleava’s best in his young career. The PFF grades saw it the best way, grading out the redshirt freshman quarterback as the Vols’ top player.
I was a bit surprised by four of Tennessee’s five lowest offensive grades coming from offensive lineman. Granted, they played seven offensive lineman in this game but the group still graded out poorly. One note on the offensive line grade, the pass block grades were generally a good bit better than the running grades.
Miles Kitselman had his worst game of the season two weeks ago against Alabama. He bounced back with a strong performance against the Wildcats while Holden Staes also had a nice game.
Defensive Grades (minimum 13 plays — 20% of defensive plays)
LEO Josh Josephs — 79.0 (39 plays)
LB Jalen Smith — 78.3 (34 plays)
LEO James Pearce Jr — 77.3 (39 plays)
S Andre Turrentine — 75.6 (26 plays)
DT Daevin Hobbs — 70.7 (18 plays)
STAR Boo Carter — 69.5 (44 plays)
S Will Brooks — 67.5 (50 plays)
DT Elijah Simmons — 67.3 (16 plays)
DE Tyre West — 66.3 (15 plays)
CB Jalen McMurray — 66.3 (28 plays)
DE Jayson Jenkins — 64.2 (14 plays)
DE Dominic Bailey — 63.9 (42 plays)
STAR Christian Harrison — 63.4 (16 plays)
DT Bryson Eason — 63.4 (30 plays)
DT Omarr Norman-Lott — 63.0 (18 plays)
LB Jeremiah Telander — 62.9 (37 plays)
CB Jermod McCoy — 62.8 (67 plays)
CB Rickey Gibson — 61.5 (47 plays)
LB Kalib Perry — 59.8 (19 plays)
LB Arion Carter — 59.7 (63 plays)
DT Jaxson Moi — 57.2 (17 plays)
S Jakobe Thomas — 46.5 (37 plays)
S Christian Charles — 35.6 (29 plays)
Josh Josephs and James Pearce were both absolute game breakers against the Wildcats. Each had very high pass rush grades and kept Brock Vandagriff and Gavin Wimsatt on the run throughout the night.
A few young defenders had really nice games for Tennessee. Redshirt freshman Jalen Smith, sophomore Daevin Hobbs and freshman Boo Carter all turned in their best performance of the season against the Wildcats.
Besides Smith, Tennessee’s linebackers struggled again. It was the worst the Vols’ run defense has been all season and it’s certainly not all on the linebackers but it feels like Tennessee is really missing Keenan Pili.
