Report Card: Tennessee Football's Offense vs UAB

The Tennessee Volunteers have won yet another game in convincing fashion. Their offense helped produce multiple touchdowns on the day, which led to a blowout victory. Here is my official report card on the offensive performance.

Quarterbacks - B-

We have seen better play out of Joey Aguilar this season, and I would anticipate seeing him play better down the line. He played fine and did well. The performance by Jake Merklinger wasn't great outside of the deep pass to Braylon Harmon. Overall, it was a solid day, as the Vols scored on three passing plays out of the 30 attempts. Aguilar had an intercepted pass attempt, but that wasn't much of a factor in the grading, as it is hard to penalize him for that. Overall, a B- in games like this can be viewed as a concern, but you have to imagine that if this is one of the more underwhelming performances by Aguilar, he is primed for a huge season.

Running Backs - A+

Not a grade that I will throw out there often, but a four-touchdown game and three different running backs scoring is quite impressive. Not to mention that Star Thomas also had a receiving touchdown. Thomas, DeSean Bishop, Daune Morris, and Peyton Lewis all averaged over 5.0 yards per carry. They ran the ball 36 times combined as well. You can't ask for a better performance out of this group in my opinion.

Wide Receivers - B

A solid day by the group. Not just one wide receiver type of game, as there were multiple receivers who had a great showing. Mike Matthews and Chris Brazzell had the best performance and Braylon Staley was just a tad under par, but you can't penalize a kid for one game when he has been doing his job at a high enough level. Would like to see the depth more in games like this, as they weren't involved very heavily, but their performance on Saturday was pleasing.

Tight Ends - C

Seemed absent for a heavy part of the game, but worked very well in the 12 personnel. You would like to see more out of this group, but you'll see games like this where they are primarily a blocking factor. Let's keep in mind that Kitselman was originally brought in for his blocking and developed as one of the better receiving tight ends in the country. I feel like this is one of the better examples of the blocking, but the receiving portion was underwhelming. Still a passing grade in my book.

Offensive Line - A

Only gave up a total of three tackles for a loss and one sack with many snaps. This group has been one of the groups that has beena. bit banged up, but for the most part has kept the quarterback clean. It is very pleasing to see the quarterback as protected as he is at this point of the season. The sack against Merklinger was the only sack given up this season, which was partially on the quarterback due to hesitation, but overall you can't be unsatisfied with the offensive line at this point. This group has played MUCH BETTER than anticipated by myself in the off-season.