The Volquest Stock Report following the Vols season opening win

Each week, Brent Hubbs and Austin Price will give the weekly stock report. Who’s up? Who’s down? and what’s just flat following the game.

Stock up:

Kamal Hadden — Hadden is a guy who had a great summer/off-season and was prime to be a starter on opening night. An injury early in fall camp before full contact work began sidelined the Michigan native for much of the pre-season. Hadden is still working himself back to 100%. Against Ball State Hadden had an interception, and two tackles in 16 snaps. Of the four passes thrown his way only one was completed. If he continues to get healthy and plays like he did in the season opener, then his snap total is going to climb significantly. — Brent Hubbs

Josh Heupel’s overall program — Everyone knows this week is a totally different test than last week, but give Heupel’s team credit. They were ready to play against Ball State and handled their business. There were no lapses or lull’s. Tennessee started fast and ended things early like a good team is supposed to do. Heupel’s Vols are confident. They played with poise and the veterans led. All signs of a stable football program. — Austin Price

Stock down:

Pass rush — Maybe this is being hyper critical as Ball State did do all they could to protect their young quarterback John Paddock getting the ball out of his hands quickly and limiting the effectiveness of Tennessee’s rush. But still, for Tyler Baron to be the only outside guy to hit Paddock is something I didn’t expect. Tennessee players and coaches have all spoke of the need to get to the quarterback with their defensive front and not having to bring extra people as a way to improve Tim Banks’ defense in year two especially on third down. We didn’t see that in game one. It needs to show up Saturday in Pittsburgh — Brent Hubbs

Warren Burrell —- No matter how much the staff pushes Burrell playing decent last week, he was targeted the most. Teams are clearly picking on him and for that very reason he has to be better overall going forward. —- Austin Price

Stock stagnant:

Left tackle — I think Gerald Mincey and JJ Crawford were both pretty solid in the season opening 59-10 win. I would say Mincey looked more athletic and probably was a big more effective, but that’s all relative to who the Vols were playing. Ball State made a decision to rush three and drop eight guys into coverage almost all night in order to keep from having the ball thrown over their head. The result is that Tennessee’s offensive front and pass protection wasn’t tested. Jabari Small said he didn’t even have a pass protection rep in the game. So the jury is still out on the Vols left tackle battle. But you can bet that judgement is coming Saturday afternoon at Pittsburgh with Pat Narduzzi’s aggressiveness in his front seven — Brent Hubbs 

Pass rush — For me there simply weren’t enough opportunities to pass any kind of judgement on Tennessee’s ability to get to the quarterback. Obviously, they didn’t have any sacks, but give Ball State credit for that. They simply weren’t going to let their new starting quarterback get tossed around so they went with a lot of quick game stuff where John Paddock got the ball out of his hands before anyone could get to him. If there’s no effective pass rush this weekend at Pittsburgh then you have some concerns, but there just weren’t enough chances to learn anything about the Vols pass rush last Thursday night. — Austin Price