Tennessee Football DEFENSE BETTER than Stats show

#26
#26
marcusluvsvols said:
Running up the middle is about to come to an end with Hobbs and Moi back for Arkansas. Telanders strength as a MLB is being a run stuffing thumper between the Tackles.

We have been bad on the edges/containment this year vs the run. Some of that is on our Edge/SDE not containing the RB and turning him upfield. Thats not always on them though, due to Stunts or play action fooling them into thinking they're rushing the passer when actually its a running play. Also, there is ALWAYS an Olineman/TE etc assigned to "seal the Edge" on those running plays. They can't always defeat the block.

The VQ podcast this morning said that we gave up 93 rushing yards outside vs UGA, and 100+ vs MSU outside. That is on the Linebackers and Safeties. Telander has struggled outside to tackle guys in space, and our Safeties especially have taken bad angles so many times or just flat missed tackles on the outside. Turrentine lead our team with 12 missed tackles last year according to PFF. He has to be on pace to shatter that number this year. In his defense, he NEVER comes off the field this season. He plays nearly every single snap on defense. Farooq is playing like 60 snaps per game with Beasley playing a dozen or so in his place. Our coaches have 2 weeks to get Beasley or somebody ready to share the load back there. We have several 4* kids who literally NEVER see the field. Where is Merritt? He flashed in fall camp...is he hurt? Is there truly nobody else on our roster that can play Safety? We have at least a dozen scholarship DBs that havent played all year. None of them can play as well as the 2 guys we see every week?
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Safeties have been a big whiff. We better hope Wyatt can stick there next year or we have to bring in minimum of two portal guys.
 
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#27
#27
Not setting the edge very well. Maybe sliding a bigger body out there after we get these tackles back may help. Vols having trouble stopping the run this year. They have been opportunistic though and have made some timely stops when they needed them..
 
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#28
#28
Cartervol said:
Not setting the edge very well. Maybe sliding a bigger body out there after we get these tackles back may help. Vols having trouble stopping the run this year. They have been opportunistic though and have made some timely stops when they needed them..
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Our edge guys tend to get up the field which results in some TFL's, sacks, and if the OT gets a push a run lane wide as a truck. Its not so much we're getting beat outside, its by getting up field you can create a run lane inside. When we do get beat outside it's often on a stunt where the DE and DT cross and the DT just doesn't get to contain fastest enough.
 
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#32
#32
NEO said:
Defense is bipolar as hell.

Looks elite one play and HS level the next.

Why we have this thread.
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Starters who have played 40+ games > freshmen who were tackling 16 year old 5'8" 160 lb RBs and WRs last year. Not that hard to understand. These young dudes are getting game experience which pays off huge in the long run. Starters getting a break in the middle of the game is why we won in the 4th quarter
 
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#33
#33
They have to get more consistent, especially on 3rd down. We need some game breakers / show stoppers so that we can get off the field.

We gave up a few 3rd and 4th downs against UGA that could have shut the game down. State game I actually think they played really good but as other pointed out its hard to stop them consistently on a short field when the offense has 2 nutty turnovers in the same game.

They stopped them when it mattered in OT though. In addition, I think Shapen may be sore for 2 weeks after some of those hits. He was getting CRUSHED.
 
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#35
#35
adam.vol said:
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

The Good:
View attachment 777829
View attachment 777825
Fumbles recovered:
View attachment 777831
Passing yards per completion:
View attachment 777833
View attachment 777835

The Bad:
View attachment 777826

Total defensive yards allowed:
View attachment 777827

View attachment 777832
Team Passing Efficiency Defense:
#82

Can only attach 8 files.
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The efficiency number is relevant. Total yards and points allowed are less relevant. The actual important number for us is opponent points per drive, which I think is higher than we would like, but not near the bottom. To win at football you need to have more successful drives than the other team, which is why the defense has so much emphasis on TFL and turnovers, which are more relevant to stopping drives than overall yardage. We’ve also played faster than most teams so far, so our defense has played more overall drives and plays.
 
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#36
#36
dduncan4163 said:
Safeties have been our biggest problem all season. I was expecting so much better from them.

The big positive I've seen from this D is it's aggressiveness. We our giving up yards but we are getting turnovers too. It's feast or famine and I believe it goes well with our offense.
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Who coaches safeties and implements the zone defense? The pass rush is directly attributed to Garner so its pretty obvious where the glaring weakness is on the coaching staff.
 
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#37
#37
RandomUTfan said:
I wonder if fans even remember that this defensive scheme usually gives up a lot of passing yards just by virtue of how well they stop the run and that that has always skewed the passing yardage stats? Ultimately I'm less concerned with how we got there and more concerned with the record and we have one loss and most of us realize that Tennessee did everything right to win that game but a kid missed a kick.
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Not just that, but we probably average more possessions/plays per game because of the offense, so any raw per game counting stats are going to look worse.
 
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#42
#42
kckempf said:
The efficiency number is relevant. Total yards and points allowed are less relevant. The actual important number for us is opponent points per drive, which I think is higher than we would like, but not near the bottom. To win at football you need to have more successful drives than the other team, which is why the defense has so much emphasis on TFL and turnovers, which are more relevant to stopping drives than overall yardage. We’ve also played faster than most teams so far, so our defense has played more overall drives and plays.
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Our conversations have been noticed. ESPN posted an article on defensive stop rates. Texas is #1. Tennessee is at #84.

Stop rate for all 136 CFB teams: Texas tops first list of 2025

Since it’s a rate, it really shouldn’t matter how often a team is on defense. The more series played, the more opportunities to increase the number of stops. The time on defense can be limited by the number of stops. I’m interested in checking the number of 3 and out’s we get compared to other teams.. Many programs are running hurry up offenses, after all.
 
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#43
#43
adam.vol said:
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

The Good:
View attachment 777829
View attachment 777825
Fumbles recovered:
View attachment 777831
Passing yards per completion:
View attachment 777833
View attachment 777835

The Bad:
View attachment 777826

Total defensive yards allowed:
View attachment 777827

View attachment 777832
Team Passing Efficiency Defense:
#82

Can only attach 8 files.
Click to expand...
When u consider that we are back at our fast break pace all of those numbers make sense. We score 50 per game so the opponent will have a lot of yards because of the possessions. I also think outside of UGA & MSU all the points were in garbage time. I think last year's slow pace contributed to our defense. This year its back to pedal to the metal.
 
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#44
#44
adam.vol said:
Our conversations have been noticed. ESPN posted an article on defensive stop rates. Texas is #1. Tennessee is at #84.

Stop rate for all 136 CFB teams: Texas tops first list of 2025

Since it’s a rate, it really shouldn’t matter how often a team is on defense. The more series played, the more opportunities to increase the number of stops. The time on defense can be limited by the number of stops. I’m interested in checking the number of 3 and out’s we get compared to other teams.. Many programs are running hurry up offenses, after all.
Click to expand...
Well this is good then

119. Arkansas448.8%3.16
 
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#47
#47
adam.vol said:
Our conversations have been noticed. ESPN posted an article on defensive stop rates. Texas is #1. Tennessee is at #84.

Stop rate for all 136 CFB teams: Texas tops first list of 2025

Since it’s a rate, it really shouldn’t matter how often a team is on defense. The more series played, the more opportunities to increase the number of stops. The time on defense can be limited by the number of stops. I’m interested in checking the number of 3 and out’s we get compared to other teams.. Many programs are running hurry up offenses, after all.
Click to expand...
Yeah, we're not doing great. Just better than the hyperbolic "we're dead last" nonsense.

So far we've been exceptional at defensive scoring. Some of our numbers are skewed by a couple of busted coverages against UAB. We have legitimate areas of concern for red zone defense. The Georgia game is an ongoing problem for us. For 3 years straight they have had something special for us on offense that they don't have for anybody else, we're going to have to have something special for them on defense at some point.
 
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#49
#49
kckempf said:
Yeah, we're not doing great. Just better than the hyperbolic "we're dead last" nonsense.

So far we've been exceptional at defensive scoring. Some of our numbers are skewed by a couple of busted coverages against UAB. We have legitimate areas of concern for red zone defense. The Georgia game is an ongoing problem for us. For 3 years straight they have had something special for us on offense that they don't have for anybody else, we're going to have to have something special for them on defense at some point.
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Brooks the film guy did a breakdown after the UGA game. They had 12 new running plays they hadnt run all year, just for UT. Thats just running...no idea how many pass plays they saved for us. Kirby is undefeated vs CJH, but he obviously respects him and fears losing to us. We absolutely torched Kirbys defense...especially the DBs which HE personally coaches...so he should fear our offense. I hope we get a rematch in the playoffs. We scorched them up 21-0 . We BEAT that stupid team if Gilbert didnt choke his liver out through his nostrils on a 42yd FG....which was sandwiched between 2 FGS that he made from a few yards further out. We had them beat. It drives me insane because we would be 5-0 right now and ranked in the top3.
 
#50
#50
madbamahater said:
Tennessee run defense, especially, is weak. Linebackers having to do way too much. This is the real truth.
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I agree the run defense is far worse than last year when it was a strength. What I’m seeing though isn’t the LBs are having to do too much. Ideally, they would make every tackle (not reality, I know) at the LOS and get a TFL or 1-2 yard gain tops.

We are making contact at 1-2 yards past the LOS then missing tackles or giving up 2-3 yards after contact. The physicality on the line and with our LBs isn’t there like it was last year.

Injuries are a factor. We are protecting young DBs meaning less dudes in the box. This is also keeping us from playing downhill on every snap but, when we do, it’s pretty dominating.

The defense is tackling poorly, giving up too many 3rd downs, and taking bad angles at times but play hard and have stepped up when needed. They are scrappy.

Firmly believe when we get healthy this unit improves considerably.
 
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