The Volquest Stock Report

Here is this week’s Tennessee football stock report, examining which players are on the rise and which are on the decline.

Stock Up

Tyler Baron — You could say the entire defensive front given their production against Pitt, but I’m saying Baron because I think it was his best game as a Vol. He was more physical than he’s ever been against the run and as an inside pass rusher in their speed rush front. Baron finished the day with 52 snaps showing his durability and physicality. He obviously had a huge sack fumble at the end of the first half, but really he was active all day. — Brent Hubbs

Cedric Tillman — The senior from Las Vegas had another big day with 9 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown. Tillman will also be the first to tell you he could have had a record setting day if he had made a couple more catches. But offensive coordinator Alex Golesh’s mindset was pretty simple. It was go win the game for us. The Vols had the match up they liked with Tillman and they rode him the entire game. Tillman now has 100 yards receiving in 6 of his last 8 games and is averaging 7 catches in that span as well. — Austin Price

Stock down

Warren Burrell — I will admit, I don’t know all the ins and outs of playing cornerback. I’m sure Kamal Hadden had a bunch of busts. Probably more than Warren Burrell, but Hadden made more plays. That’s the issue I have with Burrell is just the lack of production. Yes he makes a lot of tackles after the receiver has caught the ball in front of him, but he just doesn’t make a Buch of plays. In 22 career starts, Burrell has 9 PBU’s and zero interceptions. With teams throwing the ball at him and with Tennessee being as aggressive in attacking the quarterback as they are, Burrell needs to be more aggressive. — Brent Hubbs

 Punt operation — Saturday the who punt operation seemed off. There were a couple of low snaps. Paxton Brooks seemed slow in punting the ball. The obviously had the punt blocked on a bust and nearly had another one blocked. Brooks punt average is very solid and the coverage team has been solid but the operation from snap to foot hitting the ball hasn’t been as clean or as efficient as it needs to be. — Austin Price

Stock stagnant

The run game —Alex Golesh indicated on Tuesday that they felt their best chance to run the ball at Pitt was with the quarterback and not the tailbacks and that showed as Hendon Hooker got the most carries of anyone. But the reality is this offense needs more production on the ground and part of that is running the ball more. Jaylen Wright is the Vols best back through two games, but if he can’t hold onto the ball he can’t play. Wright has two fumbles in two games. Jabari Small got limited touches on Saturday and Dylan Sampson didn’t play. With SEC play looming, Tennessee has to find a way to be more productive in the run game.— Brent Hubbs 

The freshmen — Three of Tennessee’s transfers — Bru McCoy, Wesley Walker and Gerald Mincey — are making big impacts on this team. And maybe in time the freshmen newcomers will make an impact as well, but it was clear on Saturday the coaching staff didn’t think they were ready to prime-time as no freshman played on offense and only Elijah Herring played a couple of snaps on defense. There were freshmen on special teams, but the jury remains out on which freshmen will really help this team this fall if any. They will get their opportunities Saturday against Akron but can anyone earn the staff’s trust to be a factor with league play starts the following week against Florida. — Austin Price