Tennessee football took care of business with a 33-14 victory over Mississippi State on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium, overcoming a number of offensive injuries to remain at one loss on the season.
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 >
Offensive Grades (minimum 16 plays — 20% of offensive plays)
WR Dont’e Thornton — 84.1 (35 plays)
QB Nico Iamaleava — 81.4 (41 plays)
WR Squirrel White — 78.9 (26 plays)
RB Dylan Sampson — 75.4 (55 plays)
LT Lance Heard — 63.4 (84 plays)
WR Chris Brazzell — 61.7 (55 plays)
RB Peyton Lewis — 60.3 (20 plays)
RG Javontez Spraggins — 59.8 (72 plays)
LG Jackson Lampley — 59.7 (66 plays)
TE Miles Kitselman — 58.6 (64 plays)
C Cooper Mays — 57.6 (84 plays)
WR Mike Matthews — 56.5 (16 plays)
LG Andrej Karic — 55.5 (21 plays)
WR Bru McCoy — 54.8 (59 plays)
TE Ethan Davis — 54.5 (19 plays)
QB Gaston Moore — 52.9 (43 plays)
TE Holden Staes — 52.8 (62 plays)
RT Dayne Davis — 51.9 (56 plays)
RT John Campbell Jr — 49.5 (28 plays)
It feels like a really fitting representation of this game that three of Tennessee’s four highest graded offensive players exited the game with injuries at some point. The fourth player has been banged up over the last month.
Peyton Lewis has fully passed Cam Seldon and is Tennessee’s third running back behind Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop. Lewis had a nice night against Mississippi State and keeps getting better.
Moore was fine in the second half and his numbers indicate that. He wasn’t great but he ran the offense at a solid rate against a bad Mississippi State defense.
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Defensive Grades (13 plays — 20% of defensive plays)
DE Jayson Jenkins — 91.1 (26 plays)
STAR Boo Carter — 79.9 (35 plays)
LEO James Pearce — 79.7 (45 plays)
CB Jalen McMurray — 76.9 (22 plays)
S Jakobe Thomas — 76.8 (18 plays)
LB Arion Carter — 75.2 (51 plays)
CB Rickey Gibson III — 75.1 (50 plays)
DT Jaxson Moi — 74.9 (17 plays)
LB Jeremiah Telander — 72.7 (41 plays)
DE Dominic Bailey — 71.5 (42 plays)
S Andre Turrentine — 71.1 (49 plays)
S Christian Charles — 70.7 (24 plays)
LEO Josh Josephs — 68.9 (29 plays)
DT Omari Thomas — 66.6 (25 plays)
S Will Brooks — 64.2 (43 plays)
STAR Christian Harrison — 63.7 (36 plays)
DT Daevin Hobbs — 63.2 (19 plays)
CB Jermod McCoy — 61.7 (55 plays)
DT Bryson Eason — 58.5 (30 plays)
DT Omarr Norman-Lott — 56.4 (21 plays)
LB Jalen Smith — 46.8 (28 plays)
Shoutout to both Jayson Jenkins and Jalen McMurray. Two under the radar players on Tennessee’s defense who were fantastic against the Bulldogs. Jenkins strip sack early in the second half was one of the biggest plays in the entire game.
Strangely, Tennessee’s top defensive back Jermod McCoy and Will Brooks both turned in poor performances in the Vols win. It’s particularly odd given what little success Mississippi State had throwing the football in this game.
But others stepped up including freshman Boo Carter who bad the best performance of his young career against Mississippi State.
