Tennessee beats Alabama: The Day After

Tennessee’s offense was spectacular, the defense did enough and the Vols won the kicking game in a 52-49 epic win over Alabama ending a 15 game losing streak. The win moves Tennessee to 6-0 for the first time since 1998. We review the Vols victory with The Day After.

Hot and Not

HOT

The offensive line— Tennessee backed up last week’s terrific performance at LSU with another against the Tide. Hendon Hooker was sacked once. He had ample time to throw the ball most of the day. Tennessee ran for 182 averaging 4.7 yards a carry. 

Alabama had two TFL’s and one sack. They entered the game with 33 TFL’s and 18 sacks on the season. 

Tennessee’s offensive line was simply terrific. 

Jalin Hyatt — Have you a day Jalin! The slot receiver had six catches for 207 yards and five touchdowns, a school record. Alabama’s safeties could not run with Hyatt and Tennessee got him matched up on the safeties as much as they could. Hyatt now has 10 touchdown receptions on the season and is averaging 18 yards per reception. In three SEC games, Hyatt has 15 catches for 328 yards and seven touchdowns. 

Hendon Hooker —Hooker called it another day at the office. It was another good one. Hooker was 21-of-30 for 385 yards, five touchdowns and one the ground. He had 14 rushes for 56 yards. All signs point to Hooker heading to New York in December as a Heisman Trophy finalist. 

Jeremy Banks — Banks was credited with six tackles, but he also had four quarterback hurries. I thought Banks was as active as he has been all season. He missed a couple of tackles but he altered plenty of plays in the win. 

Chase McGrath — Yes, he missed an extra point, but when you kick a 40-yarder to beat Alabama you hit the hot column. It wasn’t a pretty kick by any means, but after being iced with a time out McGrath stepped up and delivered the biggest kick of his life. 

Alex Golesh — Everyone knows Josh Heupel’s fingerprints are all over the offense. But Alex Golesh calls almost all of the game and he’s having a really great year calling plays. He and Heupel found and exploited some mismatches in their game plan this week. They also had some nice new wrinkles. Under center on short yardage plays and the tight formations in short yardage. Those are some nice new wrinkles. 

Also, don’t forget the patience to run the ball. In the second half, Tennessee ran the ball 21 times for 101 yards. Golesh called a great game. 

NOT

Pass defense — Tennessee gave up a lot of yards through the air, but Bryce Young was terrific. The Vols biggest pass defense issue on Saturday was when the blitz didn’t get home and the middle of the field was vacated. But I give defensive coordinator Tim Banks credit, he just kept attacking. Tennessee has to get some guys healthy in the secondary.

Defining moments

McGrath’s boot to win it— It’s the play kickers dream of. A chance at a walk off win. It wasn’t pretty as McGrath acknowledged he didn’t hit it clean, but it made it over the crossbar and etched McGrath’s name into Tennessee lore. 

The :13 seconds before McGrath’s kick — After Alabama missed the field goal that would have given them the lead, Tennessee got the ball at their own 32 yard line. No one in orange was surprised with Josh Heupel’s decision to attack and try to win the game instead of taking it to overtime. Hooker hit Ramel Keyton for 18. Bru McCoy had a 27 yard ‘big boy out-muscle-the-defender catch and the Vols kicked it to win it. Heupel’s aggressiveness is something that Tennessee fans have never seen. 

Tennessee’s answer after the fumble return for a touchdown—Down 49-42, many felt ‘here we go again’, but that was not the case following the fumble by Hooker and Jabari Small on a bad exchange. The offense had a huge answer going 75 yards for the tying score.

The scene — If you ever wonder what 100k fans look like unloading all of their frustration and angst at one time you saw it as the fans found their way to the field to celebrate. It’s why you love college athletics.

Inside the numbers

9 — Number of consecutive games that Hendon Hooker has thrown multiple touchdown passes. Hooker now has a touchdown pass in 18 straight games tying him with Heath Shuler.

100% — Tennessee’s scoring percentage when they are in the red zone. The Vols are 31 of 31 in the red zone with 25 touchdowns and 6 field goals. 

1929 — That’s the last time a Tennessee player scored 30 points in a game individually. Jalin Hyatt did against Nick Saban’s defense and joins Vol great Gene McEver as the only two Vols to score five touchdowns in a game. 

17/130 — Number of penalties and yards against Alabama. General Neyland’s maxim says the team that makes the fewest mistakes will win. Tennessee had 39 yards in penalty yardage. Maxim holds true.

Gameball

Hendon Hooker was great, the offensive line was great. Josh Heupel was great. Chase McGrath is a hero. You can go on and on. 

But when you break a school record for touchdowns, have over 200 yards receiving and tie a scoring record from 1929, you get a game ball.

Jalin Hyatt is the best story on this football team and one of the best in the entire nation. It’s amazing to see his transformation over the last 10 months and his performance Saturday is one people will talk about forever. 

Biggest concern/question moving forward

Austin Price has made note of it multiple times, this schedule to this point has been favorable and it is next week. Coming off a huge win, Tennessee steps out of conference play against UT-Martin and the timing is great. It’s another week to let Tillman get healthy.

They desperately need to get some secondary guys healthy as well. They played the final defensive drive with a walk on cornerback on the field. 

So getting healthy is key. The other key is this team handling success. More interview requests are coming than ever before. More national attention is on this program in a positive way than we have seen in a long time. 

Heupel likes this team. He loves the way they work. Can they keep that edge and keep continuing to get better as they hit the back half to the schedule?