Cut to The Chase: No.17 Tennessee 56, Kentucky 34
The Vols win their fifth-straight game against the 'Cats on Saturday night in Lexington.
No. 17 Tennessee beat Kentucky for the fifth-straight time on Saturday night in Lexington by a final score of 56-34 for the Good Guys. With that being said, there are two very different lenses through which one could view this game if you’re a Vol fan: 1) Tennessee’s combination of strong quarterback and wide receiver play gives the Vols a chance to beat anyone and everyone left on their schedule, and 2) Tennessee’s defensive issues could cost the Vols in any or all of the team’s final three conference games. Both points are fair and probably true with four games remaining on Tennessee’s schedule.
Tennessee’s offense averaged 8.5 yards per play in this game. If you remove Tennessee running out the clock and kneeling the football in their final trip to the red zone at the end of the ball game, the Vols were a perfect five-for-five in the red zone, scoring a touchdown on every single trip inside the Wildcats’ 20-yard line. With the win, the Vols moved back up to No. 1 in scoring vs. SEC foes at 38.4 points per game and moved to No. 2 in all of FBS in scoring at 45.6 points per game. Remember, the 2022 Tennessee Volunteers finished No. 1 in scoring in all of FBS at 46.1 points per game. Miami was No. 1 in FBS in scoring last season at 43.9 points per game. So, if the season ended today, the Vols would have the No. 1 scoring offense in 2024, 2023, 2022, and .01 away from 2022, too. The offense can be frustrating at times, sure. Still, on a night where Joey Aguilar converted nearly 80 percent of his passes and averaged 19.8 yards per completion, the offense is the least of the Vols’ concerns going into next week’s night game in Neyland Stadium against Oklahoma.
Tennessee’s defense was a different story. The truth of the matter is that the Vols’ offense has to go into each SEC game with the understanding that they may have to score 40-plus to feel comfortable about escaping with a victory. That is just where things are with the defense. The Vols are giving up 36 points per game against conference foes this season, and if that holds, it would be their worst defensive scoring total in the Josh Heupel era. Tennessee is 15th in the SEC in giving up 10-plus yard scrimmage plays. The Vols are dead last in the conference in giving up 10-plus yard passing plays. Yes, things would be a bit different on the defensive side, especially in the secondary, if Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson II were available. It was crazy bad luck to lose McCoy to injury in January and later Gibson II in the first game of the season. It still should not, and cannot, be this bad if the Vols want to return to the College Football Playoff this season.
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This Kentucky offense wasn’t exactly firing on all cylinders coming into Saturday night’s ball game against the Vols, either. The ‘Cats were 86th in offensive FEI, per BCFToys, and the worst remaining offense in conference play for Tennessee. Kentucky was 85th in Net Yards Per Play coming into the ball game. And yet, Kentucky accumulated nearly 500 yards of total offense versus Tennessee. They accumulated more first downs. Redshirt freshman quarterback Cutter Boley tossed five touchdown passes, which included two scoring plays that went for 71 and 56 yards. Boley had thrown more interceptions than touchdowns coming into the game and left with a 9:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio on the season. Yikes.
It wasn’t all bad for Tennessee’s defense, though. Redshirt freshman Edrees Farooq had a pick-six that put the Vols up 14-0 early in the ball game. Defensive coordinator Tim Banks’ unit forced two turnovers, and it resulted in two touchdowns for Tennessee. True freshman Jadon Perlotte recovered a fumble and made the most of his opportunity with junior linebacker Arion Carter and redshirt junior Ben Bolton both out. Tennessee forced Kentucky to go 0-for-6 on third-and-long chances. The Vols had 6 TFLs.
Tennessee also had just one sack overall in the ball game. The Vols, who were No. 1 in FBS in sacks just a couple of weeks ago, have registered a single sack in their last two games. The secondary is what it is at this point unless McCoy returns sometime in the final quarter of the regular season. However, the disappearing sack total is one of the more surprising developments over the last two weeks for the Vols. Tennessee is the healthiest it’s been on the defensive line all season, and they’re just not getting home. Tennessee had fourteen sacks in its first four SEC games. If the Vols are going to run the table and beat Oklahoma, Florida, and Vanderbilt, they have to start getting home again. The talent is there, and the numbers have been there, but the unit has to get back there.
So we’ll see how it all plays out for the Vols in the final four games of the regular season. I would not take the return of Tennessee’s chunk plays in the passing game for granted. The trio of Chris Brazzell II, Braylon Staley, and Mike Matthews is an absolute delight. Outside of maybe Alabama and Texas A&M, is there a more fun trio of passcatchers out there in this conference right now? One week it’s Staley, this week it’s a combination of Brazzell II and Matthews. Vol fans were dying to see this version of Heupel’s offense return after the last two seasons, and it has. Tennessee’s defense is a mess, but, man, this offense is a whole lot of fun again, and that’s not something you could say after the previous two seasons on Rocky Top. It might be good enough for the Vols to win out, and the defense might be bad enough to stomp that out. Either way, I’m excited to see how it all plays out for the Big Orange.