The Day After: Tennessee routes Ball State 59-10

Tennessee kicked off the 2022 season in grand style routing Ball State 59-10.  We review the Vols easy victory with The Day After which includes who’s hot, who’s not, defining moments, inside the numbers and more.

HOT AND NOT

HOT

Kamal Hadden — After missing the first half of fall camp, Hadden got himself back on the practice field and may have gotten himself into the starting line up for next week at Pittsburgh. Hadden had 3 tackles and an interception where he was in perfect position to make the play. He didn’t have the most tackles but he had the best night of any Vol cornerback. 

Aaron Beasley — With no Juwan Mitchell, the linebacker rotation was a little tighter on Thursday, but it was Beasley who set the tone early and was all over the field. Beasley finished tied with a team high 8 tackles. On the first play from scrimmage, it was Beasley who pressured quarterback John Paddock into forcing the ball that was picked off my Tamarion McDonald. Beasley played more physical as well. 

The WR’s — It’s yet to be determined how many guys they will play in the rotation but no one who played appeared to struggle. The entire group caught the ball well and seemed to run good routes. I’m sure it wasn’t perfect but the receivers were very consistent all night. Bru McCoy showed he’s going to help this team. Jalin Hyatt had the great start. Cedric Tillman was solid and it was a nice showing from Ramel Keyton and Jimmy Holiday as well. I said the first week of fall camp you could see how much they had thrown the ball in the off-season because they were in such a good rhythm, that was certainly the case Thursday night as well. 

Joe Milton — This is obviously Hendon Hooker’s team so no one is trying to create any quarterback competition, but a tip of the cap to Joe Milton whose lasting image in Neyland Stadium last year was running out of bounds as the clock expired. The entire month of August, the offensive coaches including, Josh Heupel had spoken about how much Milton had improved. He showed it Thursday night going 8 of 9 for 113 yards including a beautiful 53 yard dart to Jimmy Holiday for a touchdown. Ball State generated no pass rush to speed Milton up, but he looked like he was in full command unlike at any point last year. 

NOT

Negative defensive plays — For this defense to take a step, they have to be able to rush the quarterback without blitzing. Give Ball State credit for getting it out of their quarterback’s hand quickly to help negate the pass rush, but Tennessee had zero sacks and only two tackles for loss. A year ago they were a TFL machine with 102. No one should by any means panic, but it was surprising they weren’t in the back field more and more surprising was that the two TFL’s came from non-starters in the fourth quarter. 

3rd tight end — This is not a rip on Charlie Browder or Hunter Salmon but more of a compliment to Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant. Warren and Fant are under appreciated. What they do for the offense is really important. Tennessee needs to put them in bubble wrap and keep them healthy because there’s a major drop off after them. Tennessee wasn’t able to rotate and even play more than two tight ends at once. To do that they need a third guy to emerge big time. 

Kickoff return — Again, it’s one game with limited opportunities but the two attempts at a kickoff return were not a thing of beauty. The first return yielded no yards thanks to a clipping penalty. The second return was for 16 yards and Jimmy Holiday ran into a teammate essentially tackling himself. Tennessee was really good in flipping the field last year with the hidden yards on special teams. Their kickoff return game needs to be more in synch moving forward. 

DEFINING MOMENTS

McDonald INT — What a start for McDonald who was a staple on special teams last year while waiting for his opportunity as Theo Jackson had a great year. McDonald capitalized on pressure from Aaron Beasley to intercept John Paddock’s pass on play number one. 

Hyatt touchdown — While McDonald was waiting his turn last year so was Jaylin Hyatt, who admitted he wasn’t all in last year. Hyatt was all in on the first offensive snap hauling in a 23 yard pass for the first score of the year. 

Small touchdown run — Jabari Small had a solid night highlighted by a seven yard touchdown run that showed off his new goods — his 15 pounds. Small put on the weight this off-season for more durability and power. It showed in his seven yard run where he pushed a defender into the end zone. It’s a run Small doesn’t finish that way a year ago. 

Hooker to Walker Merrill — Speaking of not doing something a year ago, I think the same can be said about Hookers 16 yard touchdown pass to Walker Merrill. A year ago, Hooker tucks the ball and runs. Thursday night he kept his eyes down field and just before running saw Walker coming into the clear, Hooker squared his shoulders and delivered an accurate strike for six. Growth from year one to year two. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

7 — Number of times Josh Heupel’s offense has scored 45 points or more in his 14 games as head coach of the Vols. 

18-25, 221 yards 2 touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns — Hendon Hooker’s numbers in Thursday’s 59-1o win. Since becoming the starter against Tennessee Tech 12 games ago, Hooker has accounted for 38 touchdowns as the Vols’ quarterback. 

218—Rushing yards by the Vol offense which averaged 4.3 yards a carry. For all the Heupel offensive love for throwing the ball around, the run game is a mainstay. Since becoming head coach, Heupel’s Vol offense has rushed for 200+ yards 9 out of 14 games. 

0 – Number of sacks recorded by Tim Banks’ defense against Ball State, leaving everyone to wonder how much they have improved in their ability to get to the quarterback.

GAMEBALL

Quarterback Hendon Hooker is going to get this a lot this year and maybe it should go to someone else. Maybe the ground game in short yardage where they were perfect. Or others after all Hooker faced no pressure from Ball State. But Hooker does have the pressure and responsibility of being the face and ‘the man’ for this program. As a leader he was ready to play as were his teammates. He was high a couple of times. He got away with a couple of things, but he’s Tennessee football right now and he was in command better than ever Thursday night. 

BIGGEST CONCERN/QUESTION MOVING FORWARD

I wrote in Thursday’s 10 Things I think I think that you wouldn’t learn a ton from the game. And you didn’t. Ball State never blitzed. They rushed 3 and played zone. Tennessee handled it fine but pressure is coming. We still don’t know how well they played at left tackle and we all know pressure packages are coming from Pitt next weekend. 

Defensively, I was expecting more pressure and I didn’t think their middle of the field coverage was very good. Ball State’s tight ends found success over the middle. Now Tennessee wasn’t very creative defensively as they showed little. Like I said we didn’t learn a lot, but defensively being more effective up front is a must moving forward as is being more consistent in the secondary.