Johnathon Johnson earned his first start at wide out on Saturday, and he made the most of that opportunity, catching three balls for 46 yards and two touchdowns.
“JJ played awesome being able to come up with those two big touchdown catches, one at the end of the first half was huge and then to start off the second half on just about back-to-back plays,” senior quarterback Justin Worley said. “He’s playing great football. I think the coaches are really impressed with how he’s improved from last year to this year. He does everything right. You don’t see him messing up too often or dropping too many balls. He’s really progressed.”
And after the best game of his Volunteer career, the junior wide receiver wants to make sure his performance this week carries over for the rest of the season.
“It gives us momentum and confidence,” Johnson said. “It lets them (SEC teams) know that we are a pretty good team when we do things right. Going into the next game it gives us confidence and we are excited for the next game.”
Continual complication: The Tennessee offensive line continued to struggle in Saturday’s contest against Chattanooga, giving up 5 sacks – a season-high for the Mocs. Tennessee’s season total of 23 sacks puts the Vols toward the bottom of the nation in that category.
“It’s disappointing because we need to take more pride in our one-on-one matchups,” junior center Mack Crowder said. “We just can’t be getting beat like that especially against Chattanooga, but really any opponent. It just comes down to effort and pride really at the end of the day … We’re keeping our heads up. We know we have a lot of work to do and we’re coming in everyday to work and that’s all we can do. We’re going to continue to work and continue to grow.”
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones doesn’t want to place all of the blame on his young offensive line.
“A couple of the sacks weren’t from the offensive line, but from a back in protection,” Jones said. “Your eyes want to point towards the offensive line, but sometimes we hang on to the ball too much and we have to put it away, but we’ll continue to break it down and you just have to keep working on it.”
Rummaging through running backs: Freshman Derrell Scott made his debut for the Vols at running back in the first quarter, marking the 23rd true freshman to appear in a game for UT this year. Scott led the team in rushing with 46 yards on 9 attempts.
Scott and fellow backup Justus Pickett were able to get more reps because of Tennessee’s banged up running backs.
Freshman Jalen Hurd was limited to only 2 carries because of a banged up shoulder, while senior Marlin Lane didn’t play at all due to an ankle injury. The Vols suffered even more at the running back position when senior Devrin Young was sidelined early in the game with “a couple of broken ribs,” according to Jones.
“Depth” was a key word throughout Butch Jones’ postgame press conference, and that became evident with three running backs out of service on the sidelines.
“We need much, much more depth,” Jones said. “A lot of that will be addressed in recruiting. Some of our young players who don’t play as much need to continue to work and progress throughout the season, but depth becomes a big issue. You look at the running back position. That’s a depth of concern.”
