Following a win over Mississippi State and a loss against Georgia, Tennessee football is entering the home stretch of the regular season with matchups against UTEP and Vanderbilt remaining on the schedule. The Vols are 8-2 (5-2 SEC) and are on the CFP bubble and have to take care of business the next two weeks.
Here’s a look at the Tennessee football stock report entering the final two weeks of the regular season.
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Stock Up
Boo Carter
The freshman defensive back’s development has been a great sign this season. He’s gotten better-and-better as the year has progressed and has grabbed the starting spot at STAR. He doesn’t play every snap but he is undoubtedly the lead guy at the spot. Carter has been good and has made a handful of plays the last two weeks.
Carter has also won the starting spot at punt returner and has had a couple really nice returns over the last few weeks. The Chattanooga native keeps getting better and is playing at a high level.
Max Gilbert
In our last stock report, we had Gilbert trending down after poor performances against Alabama and Kentucky. But the redshirt freshman quarterback has been great since then.
Gilbert is five-of-five on field goal attempts the last two weeks including a pair of makes from over 50 yards. Prior to that, Gilbert had missed all three of his attempts from 50-plus yards. The west Tennessee native hasn’t just broken out of his slump but is in the best stretch of is career.
Stock Holding
Nico Iamaleava
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava was playing his best football of the season in the second half against Alabama and into the Kentucky game. It’s been a two week stretch of adversity since then with Iamaleava suffering a concussion against Mississippi State before returning to the field against Georgia.
Iamaleava wasn’t perfect after the return but he played a pretty solid game against a great defense with his offensive line giving him little time to throw. He also played well before suffering the injury against Mississippi State.
The redshirt freshman quarterback keeps getting a little bit better but there’s been no one moment where things have started to click.
Stock Down
Pass Rush
This is pretty much a one game sample size but Tennessee’s pass rush had its worst game of the season in the Vols’ loss at Georgia.
The Bulldogs pass protection had been shaky all season due to injuries and was especially bad against Ole Miss when the Rebels sacked Carson Beck five times. Expecting Tennessee to recreate that type of performance was unrealistic but the Vols got no pressure on Beck all game.
Because of that, Beck turned in his best game of the season and Georgia’s passing attack found its rhythm. Tennessee’s pass rush needed to be good for the Vols to upset Georgia. Instead they were largely ineffective.
Linebacker Play
The play of Tennessee’s linebacker unit has slowly become a bigger-and-bigger issue since the loss of Keenan Pili against Florida.
After a good game against Alabama, the Vols’ linebackers struggled while they gave up big rushing performances in wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State. Then Georgia torched the Vols in the air by throwing the ball over the middle and to its tight ends.
Vanderbilt has a rushing attack that will test Tennessee’s linebackers as much as any other rushing attack has all season. They need to perform better to end the regular season.
