No. 19 Tennessee football bounced back to beat Kentucky 33-27 to win its first road game in 2023.
Offensively, the Vols played a complete game and made up for the deficiencies of the defense. It wasn’t a perfect win, but they kept a sliver of hope alive in the SEC East race with the win.
Here is a look at how Tennessee graded out.
Quarterback
Joe Milton III threw the ball efficiently on his lowest number of passing attempts of the season. The sixth-year senior threw at a clip of 18-for-21 with 228 yards and a touchdown.
While it wasn’t an explosive performance, Milton didn’t put the ball in harm’s way and kept the offense moving with some key plays down the stretch.
On the Vols’ final touchdown drive, he had four throws that went for first downs to set up a Dylan Sampson rushing touchdown. On the final drive, he took a designed run 11 yards for a first down that iced the game.
Grade: B+
Running backs
Jaylen Wright got things going for the room with a 52-yard touchdown on Tennessee’s opening drive. He got banged up as the game progressed, but he finished with 120 yards on just 11 carries.
Wright didn’t have a carry in the fourth quarter, but Sampson came alive and played a key role in the Vols closing out the game. Sampson picked up 92 of his 114 all-purpose yards in the fourth quarter, including a 12-yard touchdown that essentially put the game out of reach.
Tennessee rushed for a total of 251 yards.
Grade: A
Wide receivers
Milton spread the ball around, and no receiver had an explosive game, but nobody in the room was credited with a drop.
Dont’e Thornton Jr. led the room with three catches for 63 yards, including a 47-yarder on second-and-19. Chas Nimrod caught his first touchdown pass as a Vol after beating his defender and walking into the end zone.
The wide receivers, like Milton, had an efficient day despite a small workload.
Grade: B+
Offensive line
The offensive line blocked well for the most part but drew penalties in bad spots, which was the main issue with the offense on Saturday.
The line provided room for Wright and Sampson to get to the second level, so that holds some weight.
Grade: B-
Front seven
The run defense held Ray Davis in check for just 44 yards, but the pass rush was nowhere to be found for most of the night.
Kentucky quarterback Devin Leary had ample time to throw and easily escaped when pressured. Though the secondary had their struggles, the front seven could have done better in making things difficult for Leary.
The struggles could be attributed to the fact that the Vols weren’t necessarily preparing for the pass-heavy offense that the Wildcats put out.
Grade: C+
Secondary
It was a miserable performance for a secondary in its first game without Kamal Hadden. Leary threw for 372 yards — his most by a long shot during SEC play.
Entering the game, Leary was averaging 103.5 yards per game in SEC play. In a second-quarter drive, the Vols sent in their backups after Leary began to heat up.
The group sat back in soft zone for most of the night and left many holes for Leary to find his receivers in.
Grade: D
Special teams
Charles Campbell hit all four of his field goal attempts and all of Josh Turbyville’s kicks turned into touchbacks.
The return game was silent, but there were no mistakes from the specialists.
Grade: B
Coaching
Outside of the defense, this was one of the better coached games of the season. Things didn’t spiral out of control when Tennessee lost momentum, and it also showed the ability to slow down and chew clock in the fourth quarter.
The final possession was executed to perfection as the Vols drained the final 4:24 on the clock.
Grade: B+
Overall
It was not without its struggles, but Tennessee finally pulled out a win on the road. The secondary showed some serious issues without Hadden, but the offense picked up the slack.
Grade: B+
