The Volquest stock report
Tennessee returns to SEC action Saturday night as the 7-0 Vols take on Kentucky. Tennessee is coming off a 65-24 dismantling of UT-Martin while the Wildcats are coming off an open date.
As Josh Heupel’s team enters this key stretch of SEC games to close out the season we take a look at the weekly Volquest stock report.
Stock up
Alex Golesh — Golesh and Josh Heupel collaborate on game plans every week and Heupel is hands on with play calls, but Golesh is calling the game and largely creating the plan. The growth and evolution of this offense in obvious. Each week there are new wrinkles. Each week there are guys wide open. Alex Golesh’s name is going to surface for jobs and it should. He along with the head coach and Hendon Hooker have this offense humming. It’s impressive to see what new things they have each week for their opponent. — Brent Hubbs
Princeton Fant— Fant fumbled his first catch against Florida. Since that play Fant has 10 catches for 84 yards, a 2 point conversion and 3 rushes for 14 yards and 3 touchdowns. The tight end is important to Tennessee’s success and Fant has elevated the position and his game since the fumble to start the game against Florida. — Austin Price
Stock down
Paxton Brooks —Tennessee’s senior average just 28 yards on two punts against UT-Martin. Brooks has only punted 14 times this season and is averaging 40 yards a kick. That’s four yards less than last year. Brooks has also had a punt blocked. Saturday, a number of his kickoffs looked returnable but UT-Martin elected to fair catch every kickoff. Kickoffs and kickoff coverage will be a key component to Saturday match-up. — Brent Hubbs
Top 10
- 1Hot
Strength of Schedule
CFP Top 25 SOS ranking
- 2
Alabama needs a prayer
Tide can make the CFP but needs help
- 3
3 ACC teams in CFP?
Path for ACC outlined
- 4
Taco Bell offers Oklahoma
Brent Venables story pays dividends
- 5
New CFP Top 25
College Football Playoff rankings revealed
Kentucky in this series — Mark Stoops has done a great job in the bluegrass with the Wildcats. As Walt Wells noted in the Rocky Top Rewind he’s been the only guy at Kentucky to do it because he’s had a plan and stuck to it. However, Kentucky has long struggled with Tennessee. The Vols have seemingly had their number even in years where Kentucky was better. Even through all the turmoil and disappointment at Tennessee, the Wildcats have just 2 wins in the 12 years since the firing of Phillip Fulmer, Vanderbilt has five. — Austin Price
Stock stagnant
Cedric Tillman —Will this be the week Tillman returns to the line up. Tennessee’s offense hasn’t slowed down without him, but Tillman’s return would only enhance this offense. Tillman had surgery on September 20th. Tillman has been rehabbing and doing some football work on the practice field. Could he make his return this week against Kentucky and if he does how effective can he be. Last year, Tillman had 6 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. — Brent Hubbs
Secondary health— Does Kamal Hadden return to the line up? It appears he will. Christian Charles seems doubtful. Brandon Turnage likely will be available, but is he 100%? Jaylen McCollough remains out. Of course Warren Burrell is out. It’s been a challenge in the secondary all season even when fully healthy. That challenge is even more difficult as Tennesssee tries to manage things with limited bodies in the back end of the defense. — Austin Price
