Photo Credit: Austin Perryman/Tennessee Athletics
What was that? That was extremely difficult to watch. Tennessee beat Charlotte 14-3, in one of the more lackluster performances I have ever witnessed. The offense struggled mightily, but the defense had a relatively solid game. The Vols had possession of the ball 11 times. They kneeled the ball to end the first half and again at the end of the game. Besides that, they had 1 offensive touchdown, 7 punts and a missed field goal. I know rebuilding is not always pretty, but this was just inexcusable and embarrassing.
Tennessee's first points came when Charlotte punted on their first possession. The punt was not kicked in the right direction, which meant very few 49ers were on the side of the field that the ball was. Marquez Callaway easily ran 82 yards for the touchdown, giving Tennessee an early 7-0 lead. Charlotte turned the ball over on downs on their next drive. The Vols took over and Jarrett Guarantano found Dominick Wood-Anderson for a 33-yard completion. Tennessee capped of the 6-play drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass from Guarantano to Josh Palmer. At that point, the Vols led 14-0 and I was very confident that my score prediction of 42-7 would end up being close to the final score. Instead, the Vols did not score another point. As became the norm for the game, the team's traded multiple punts, before Charlotte's 12-play, 87-yard drive resulted in a 20-yard field goal with 17 second remaining in the first half.
Brent Cimaglia missed a 33-yard field goal on the Vols' opening possession of the second half. Tennessee's defense was locked in all game, but the offense did not help them out at all. Bryce Thompson intercepted a pass and returned it 18 yards late in the fourth quarter. Tennessee was victorious on homecoming weekend, but there were not many positives besides that.
Josh Palmer made 4 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown on the day, while Dominick Wood-Anderson caught 3 passes for 53 yards. In addition, Marquez Callaway recorded 3 receptions for 30 yards, along with his 82-yard punt return for a touchdown. Defensively, Daniel Bitulu recorded 13 tackles (6 solo), while Todd Kelly Jr. logged 7 stops. Kyle Phillips had a great performance, posting 4 solo tackles, including 2 TFLs, as well as 2 pass deflections. Darrell Taylor, Baylen Buchanan, Shy Tuttle and Will Ignont each made 4 tackles.
5 Takeaways
1. Tennessee’s offensive line was horrendous: This has been an awful year for the Vols up front. That’s obvious. Still, it was more than just a rough day on Saturday. Although Charlotte is not the worst non-conference foe the Vols have ever faced, Tennessee was expected to dominate in the trenches. This is why I picked the Vols to put up 42 points on the 49ers. Charlotte’s defense recorded 9 TFL’s, including 2 sacks. They also held the Vols to just 192 total yards. Jarrett Guarantano continues to lack time to throw the ball downfield. When he manages the courage to stand in the pocket, he gets hit hard nearly every time. Some fans are not happy with him, but the offensive line is making him look bad. He would be playing like he did at Auburn if he had a decent amount of time to look downfield. He finished with a nice completion percentage, completing 16-21 passes for 172 yards and 1 touchdown. This is partially due to the fact that he had to dump the ball off several times throughout the game. Guarantano is much better than he looks. I don’t think a Hall of Fame quarterback could succeed behind this offensive line. I usually don’t try to be too negative, but this has gotten way out of control.
2. Defense deserves credit: In all of the negativity surrounding a game such as the one on Saturday, everything is put under a microscope. My score prediction of 42-7 for this game seemed reasonable heading into the contest. I know it’s Charlotte, but the Vols’ defense did not even surrender those 7 points. Holding the 49ers to only a field goal should be seen as a positive. It probably would be spoken of more if the offense had done better, but that dampened any positive takeaways from either side of the ball on Saturday. Tennessee held Charlotte to 244 total yards and the 49ers only converted on 5-15 third down attempts. Additionally, Tennessee recorded 8 TFLs, including 3 sacks on the afternoon. The Vols also came up with a takeaway, as Bryce Thompson intercepted a pass near the end of the game. Additionally, Daniel Bituli recorded a season-high 13 tackles.
3. Bad offensive line play affected the run game: This season, most of the negativity towards the offensive line has been in terms of the passing game. On Saturday, the ground game was greatly affected by the poor play up front. The Vols had accounted for 0 yards at halftime and finished with just 20 yards on 26 carries. 20 yards! That is downright unacceptable. I do not care how bad we may be in this rebuilding process. No SEC school should be running for 20 yards against Charlotte. This is one of the most frustrating stats I have ever encountered as a Vol fan.
4. This was worse than previous lackluster performances: Many are comparing Saturday’s game to the UMass game of last season. Tennessee beat the Minutemen 17-13 in that 2017 matchup. Another game that came to my mind was Tennessee’s 24-0 homecoming victory over North Texas in 2015. It was a noon kickoff and the Vols seemed to have no life in them. Looking back on that game, 24-0 sounds pretty good right now.
5. Vol fans are looking ahead to basketball season: Tennessee fans are some of the best in the country. They are loyal, passionate and powerful, as seen in the fan veto of Greg Schiano this past offseason. On Saturday, 86,753 fans gathered in Neyland Stadium for the 4:00 kickoff. For many teams across the nation, this would be an above-capacity crowd. Obviously for Tennessee, this leaves about 15% of the seats empty. Fans are clearly looking forward to basketball season. I am not saying that the fans are disloyal, I am just making the point that the basketball team being ranked sixth in the nation has given fans something exciting to look forward to. Additionally, the low attendance on Saturday cannot be held against Vol fans, as Neyland held over 100,000 for the Florida game and over 97,000 for the Alabama game this year.