Here the side-by-side projected starters for this week’s game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Kentucky Wildcats, with each players’ class and published recruiting rankings. If you can’t see the entire chart embedded below, click here for full page:
As before, the color codes are based on the range of 247 Composite numbers on the list. The range starts with deep green at the top and ends with deep red at the bottom.
Here’s the list of starters, sorted by recruiting ranking (full page here):
Observations
The stars breakdown:
5-stars: Tennessee 2, Kentucky 0
4-stars: Tennessee 10, Kentucky 5
3-stars: Tennessee 10, Kentucky 16
2-stars: Tennessee 0, Kentucky 1
No rating: Tennessee 1, Kentucky 0
Tennessee has 12 of the 15 highest-rated players.
Kentucky’s highest-rated players are sophomore left tackle Landon Young, redshirt freshman center Drake Jackson, and senior nose guard Matt Elam.
Kentucky’s highest-rated unit is its offensive line, anchored by 4-stars Young and Jackson. They’ll be going up against Tennessee’s highest-rated unit, its defensive line.
Kentucky’s lowest-rated unit is its “second-level” offensive unit of quarterback Stephen Johnson and running back Benny Snell. The primary takeaway from that piece of information is that some players end up playing way above their recruiting grades. Johnson and Snell together may have the lowest average rating of any Kentucky starting units, but they are actually a real strength of the team. They’re probably helped a lot by that offensive line, though, too.
Tennessee’s lowest-rated unit is its receiving corps, notwithstanding Marquez Callaway’s high 4-star rating.
Butch Jones announced at his press conference Monday that junior offensive lineman Jack Jones has decided to end his football career due to ongoing issues with his neck and shoulder.
“He’s had some recurring neck and shoulder injuries,” Butch Jones said, “and after meeting with doctors, everyone felt that it was in his best interest that he would no longer play football. Obviously, we hurt for Jack. We hurt for his great family. We’ll be there for support, and he’ll continue to be a member of this football team in moving forward.”
This is terrible news for Jones, who was a 4-star prospect in the Class of 2015 and who started seven games and played 18 in his first two seasons before playing intermittently this fall. He started the first three games at left guard, but missed the last two as he sought second and third opinions about his injury status and future with football.
It’s also terrible news for a struggling offensive line, who now has lost Jones forever to injury, Venzell Boulware forever to transfer, and Chance Hall this entire season to injury. The unit will also be without Brett Kendrick, Jashon Robertson, and Coleman Thomas after this season due to graduation.
That leaves a couple of highly-touted returning players in Drew Richmond and Trey Smith, along with a handful of other guys, but the unit is once again sorely lacking in numbers. There are three offensive lineman commits so far in this year’s recruiting class, including 5-star Cade Mays, but with the turmoil in the program and the unknown future for Butch Jones, many are justifiably concerned about the program’s ability to turn those commitments into letters of intent. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out.
Most importantly, though, best wishes to Jack Jones. Good luck, young man. I hope you find great success and joy in whatever lies ahead.
Butch Jones is scheduled to meet with the media for his regular Monday press conference here in just a few moments. If you can’t listen, follow along below for our real-time notes.
Here’s our regular look at the Tennessee Volunteers’ national rankings in all of the various NCAA statistical categories. There’s a reason you’re seeing red.
Offensive observations. My goodness, what can you say about that? That would classify as “doing everything poorly,” and a whopping 11 categories are ranked 107th or worse. The trend to red is terrifying, like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
Defensive observations. Well, this at least shows that the Georgia Tech game was a bit of an anomaly, a word I can never spell right on the first try. The team’s also better this year than last at allowing passing yards and on first down, so that’s good. Everything else still needs work, even if it’s not the four alarm fire the offense is right now.
Special teams observations. Green is good, in case you’ve forgotten. The return game is actually very, very good. Punting is still good. Return coverage is not so good. Moving on.
Turnovers and Penalties observations. A whole bunch of whatever here. You might be inclined to say that penalties are not a huge problem (but can be improved), except that it seems like most of the team’s penalties have been at the absolute worst time. And most the turnovers numbers are back to terrible again.
In this early edition of the podcast, Will, Brad, and I search through the wreckage of the Alabama game, discuss Jarrett Guarantano’s post-game promise to make the next 35 days magical, talk about longevity in the Top 25 as the appropriate measure of national relevance, and wonder why there wasn’t more scrutiny about the Larry Scott hire when it happened.
Half the league takes the weekend off, Tennessee gets rolled as expected, Southern Miss wins a thriller, Missouri flirts with 70 points again, and LSU continues to improve. What’s it all mean for the Vols the rest of the way?
The Vols lost to Alabama 45-7, barely missing on a historical spread of 37 points, and got outgained 604 yards to 108. The first downs race was 35-7. Tennessee would have barely won with a score of 49-45 if you gave Tennessee seven points for a first down and Alabama seven points for a touchdown. The offense looked inept once again, and although it didn’t feel like the defense was terrible, it still gave up 600 yards and 45 points.
And yet, I don’t know that any of that tells us anything that we didn’t already know. Alabama just magnified the team’s warts and shined a national spotlight on them. It’s embarrassing, but it’s not like it was a well-kept secret or anything.
So, I’m actually not feeling any worse about the Vols themselves after this weekend. There may actually be some raw material to work with the rest of the way . . . but I’m not ready to go anywhere in that direction yet, either. So, status quo this week.
Expectations for a Vols win: Southern Miss had to stage a comeback to get the win against LA Tech. They didn’t make it 27-19 until there was 1:23 left, and then they needed to recover an onside kick, score again, and get a two-point conversion to get it to overtime. The craziness didn’t stop there, as both teams threw an interception on their respective possessions in the first overtime. Credit to Southern Miss for all of that and for finally getting over the top in the second overtime to pull off the dramatic win. All of that said, I’m keeping this one at 50/50.
Expectations for a Vols win: Oh, good. Missouri is finding itself just in time. Or maybe they just played actual potatoes this weekend. I don’t know. Regardless, they can put up points. Sometimes. Other times not. So, I’m giving them 50 for putting up a lot of points sometimes and taking away 50 for sometimes not being very good at all.
Expectations for a Vols win: Oh, good. LSU is rolling again, too. Fantastic. Derrius Guice ran for 276 yards himself. I moved this to 30% last week, and I’m moving it even further this week, to 25%.
Congratulations to chuckiepoo, who went a stellar 19-1 and finished first in this week’s Gameday on Rocky Top Pick ‘Em Pool with 209 confidence points. He wins a Gameday on Rocky Top t-shirt from our custom tee store, Web Community Tees.
Chuckiepoo, watch for a message from me on how to get your tee.
Knottfair remains in the lead in the overall standings for now, but birdjam and joeb_1 are tied for second and behind by only 11 confidence points.
Here are the full results for this week:.
Rank
Selection Name
W-L
Pts
Tie Breaker Game (7-45)
1
chuckiepoo
19-1
209
13-49
2
rockhopper78
18-2
205
9-44**
2
jfarrar90
18-2
205
13-41
4
Displaced_Vol_Fan
17-3
204
3-45**
4
boro wvvol
18-2
204
3-35
4
jeremy.waldroop
18-2
204
15-58
7
Knottfair
18-2
203
9-42**
7
Volfan2002
17-3
203
10-49
7
PrideofTheSouthlandFan
18-2
203
3-38
7
BZACHARY
17-3
203
0-0
11
birdjam
18-2
202
6-45**
11
rsbrooks25
17-3
202
6-54
11
Anaconda
17-3
202
16-52
14
GeorgeMonkey
17-3
201
7-42**
14
Bulldog 85
17-3
201
9-50
14
PAVolFan
18-2
201
12-60
14
Raven17
18-2
201
56-6
18
Phonies
17-3
200
10-48
19
Jahiegel
17-3
199
9-41**
19
joeb_1
17-3
199
12-47
21
ga26engr
19-1
198
17-58
22
ChuckieTVol
17-3
197
6-49**
22
LuckyGuess
16-4
197
13-36
22
ltvol99
18-2
197
7-49
22
ThePowerT
16-4
197
13-34
22
spartans100
17-3
197
17-48
22
mmb61
18-2
197
10-56
28
mariettavol
18-2
196
11-39**
28
vols95
18-2
196
6-49
30
C_hawkfan
17-3
195
9-42**
30
UNDirish60
17-3
195
13-45
30
tpi
18-2
195
0-0
33
edgarmsmith
17-3
194
10-45
34
bking
17-3
193
16-37**
34
Jaywine
19-1
193
0-42
36
VandyVol
16-4
192
7-48
37
HUTCH
18-2
191
0-56**
37
alanmar
17-3
191
0-0
39
mmmjtx
18-2
189
0-42
40
Harley
18-2
188
17-41
41
BlountVols
17-3
186
9-36
42
Joel @ GRT
17-3
183
7-39
43
the-albatross
16-4
182
17-48
44
Rossboro
17-3
180
0-45
45
DinnerJacket
15-5
179
10-48
46
ddayvolsfan
17-3
176
3-52**
46
IBleedVolOrange
18-2
176
9-54
46
Jrstep
16-4
176
0-121
49
waltsspac
18-2
175
0-46**
49
tdrb42
16-4
175
0-45
49
ctull
16-4
175
6-34
52
crafdog
17-3
169
17-37
53
Timbuktu126
13-7
167
7-14
54
Drew
16-4
166
0-0
55
Gman15
13-7
164
13-41
56
patmd
16-4
163
17-34
57
daetilus
15-5
162
10-41
58
jobliner
16-4
161
10-41**
58
CajunVol
15-5
161
0-0
58
1hoss2
14-6
161
0-0
61
TNann
17-3
155
3-52
62
RandyH112
16-4
153
0-70
63
ed75
16-4
149
3-56
64
Dylan pickle
14-6
147
0-54
65
Techboy
15-5
141
0-0
66
PensacolaVolFan
13-7
130
6-42
67
Sam
18-Feb
37
0-0
68
rollervol
17-Mar
36
6-45
69
RichVols
0-20
35
0-0**
69
Will Shelton
0-20
35
-
69
aquasox
0-20
35
-
69
jstorie1
0-20
35
-
69
TennVol95 in 3D!
0-20
35
-
69
mobilevol
0-20
35
-
69
sncdaisy
0-20
35
-
69
BritishVol
0-20
35
-
69
901Vol
0-20
35
-
69
The Alyas Greys
0-20
35
-
69
EVOL
0-20
35
-
69
dgibbs
0-20
35
-
69
CNMcCreary
0-20
35
-
69
wreckvol
0-20
35
-
69
rockytopinky
0-20
35
-
69
OriginalVol1814
0-20
35
-
69
KeepsCornInAJar
0-20
35
-
69
PaVol
0-20
35
-
69
T dog
0-20
35
-
69
kmchugh
0-20
35
-
69
waitwhereami
0-20
35
-
69
over754ut
0-20
35
-
69
wedflatrock
0-20
35
-
69
biologydropout
0-20
35
-
69
utkjmitch
0-20
35
-
69
SouthernDCist
0-20
35
-
69
rudydog
0-20
35
-
69
MeytonPanning
0-20
35
-
69
DCVFL
0-20
35
-
69
VillaVol
0-20
35
-
69
Volboy
0-20
35
-
69
memphispete
0-20
35
-
And here are the current overall standings after Week 8:
Finally, some chaos in the Gameday on Rocky Top Guessing Game, as a thunderbolt robs the field of 10 points (except for one lucky player) and a blue shell creates a three-way tie for first.
The full play-by-play is below.
Top 10 as of the end of last week
Daetilus
74
Marietta Vol
59
Josh Farrar
56
Harley
47
Fatso
44
Sam
44
Joel Hollingsworth
42
MitchellK
41
Dave Strunk
40
Jayyyy
39
Round 1
Q: Which is greater, Alabama’s rushing yards or Tennessee’s total yards? (5-20 points)
A: Alabama’s rushing yards (5 points) (272 to 108) (Yes, their rushing yards nearly tripled our total yards)
Twelve players get this right and get five points for it.
Mushrooms: Raven17 and Joel Hollingsworth
Bananas: Jayyyy gets both of these.
Blue shells and bolts: None, but the one pending blue shell is still on the move toward the top.
Top 10 after Round 1:
Daetilus
74
Marietta Vol
64
Josh Farrar
61
Joel Hollingsworth
52
Sam
49
Harley
47
Dave Strunk
45
Fatso
44
MitchellK
41
Raven17
41
Round 2
Q: When does Tennessee score its next touchdown? (5-30 points)
A: 2nd half (5 points) and 3rd quarter (20 points)
Three players get the safe five points, and one player (Fatso) got the bonus 20 points.
Mushrooms: Sam gets both of these
Bananas: Josh Farrar and MitchellK
Blue shells and bolts: cscott95 draws a thunderbolt, claiming the next question all to himself, and the blue shell continues to move.
Top 10 after Round 2:
Daetilus
74
Marietta Vol
64
Fatso
64
Sam
59
Joel Hollingsworth
57
Josh Farrar
56
Harley
47
Raven17
46
Dave Strunk
45
Evan
39
Round 3
Q: What’s the phrase of the day? (10 points)
A: Beat Bama Anyway! (10 points)
Everyone who played would have gotten this right if it weren’t for cscott95’s thunderbolt, but because he did, he’s the only one who gets the 10 points.
Mushrooms: Raven17 and TennVol95.
Bananas: Joel Hollingsworth and Josh Farrar.
Blue shells and bolts: The first blue shell reaches Daetilus at the front and blows him up, taking away 10 points. Another blue shell is released from the back of the pack (of those who played this week).
Former Florida Gator Tim Tebow just gave the Tennessee Volunteers, via SEC Nation, a much-needed pep talk ahead of the Third Saturday in October game against Alabama this afternoon. Preach:
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