There are plenty of statistical talking points behind what Georgia did to Auburn last night; we’ll get to that. For now, let’s talk about what Tennessee is doing unusually well:
Have the Vols ever had four fourth down conversions in a single game?
I can’t find this record in Tennessee’s media guide. What I do know about yesterday is it’s the first time the Vols had four fourth down conversions in the same game in at least the last 11 years (also known as the post-Fulmer era), which is as far back as the data goes from SportSource Analytics.
What’s more: four fourth down conversions represent more than Tennessee had in three of the last four seasons: 2-for-12 last year, 3-for-10 in 2017, 2-for-9 in 2016.
That 1-of-11 performance against South Carolina will hang out in our stats for a while. But 6-of-13 against Missouri on third down got the job done, and positions Tennessee nicely as an efficient offense. Third down success is no guarantee – Kentucky leads the nation at 60% and is 0-2 – but the Vols, so far, have done a good job on first and second down, did a much better job on third down yesterday, and are indeed playing without fear on fourth down.
Making the biggest difference in the red zone
Much maligned and rightfully so, the 2019 Vols scored touchdowns on less than half of their red zone possessions, finishing 112th nationally in that stat. This year, through two weeks: nine trips, seven touchdowns, one field goal, one victory formation.
We’ve been led astray early here before: in 2017, the Vols scored five touchdowns in five red zone trips against Georgia Tech (obligatory, “That might’ve been the most insane, least meaningful game in Tennessee football history,” comment). Then the Vols went 3-of-4 against Indiana State.
Then Tennessee scored zero touchdowns in three trips at Florida, and you know how that ended. And you know how the rest of the year ended: eight red zone touchdowns in nine trips the first two weeks, 11 red zone touchdowns in 26 trips the rest of the season. So doing it against South Carolina and Missouri is no guarantee. But it’s already much, much better than what the Vols did in the red zone last year.
An opening drive touchdown!
We looked at what the Vols had done on their first drive just before the South Carolina game. The results: very bad! Only one touchdown and only one field goal on the offense’s first drive last season, while the defense gave up six touchdowns and two field goals on their opening possessions.
Tennessee’s first strike against Missouri was just the second first-drive touchdown of the Jeremy Pruitt era, joining that BYU game from last season. It also meant the Vols won their sixth straight against the SEC East’s second tier, but finally did it without giving up the game’s first points, as they had the other five times.
Scoring a touchdown on the opening drive has been an issue for a while now. Against FBS competition, the Vols did it once in 2019, never in 2018, and only against lesser competition in 2017 (Southern Miss and Vanderbilt) and 2016 (Ohio and Vanderbilt). You have to go back to 2015 to find the offense really humming out of the gate, with five first-drive touchdowns (including a kickoff return and a first-drive touchdown against Arkansas…in a game we somehow still lost). It was just one drive, but the Vols are moving in the right direction.
Good News/Bad News of the Week
Good News: Tennessee is one of only five teams yet to turn the ball over this season (of 74 now to play at least one game).
Bad News: Tennessee is one of only seven teams yet to hit a 40+ yard play. The Vols finished 73rd in this stat last year with 13 40+ yard plays, one per game on average.