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Tennessee Football Report Card: Grading the Vols in the Music City Bowl

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:55 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Caleb Calhoun/FanSided via All for Tennessee

Dec 30, 2016; Nashville , TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) throws a pass against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the first half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

Tennessee football put together a complete performance to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 38-24. Here is the UT Volunteers’ report card from the game.

Where was this performance down the stretch of the season? Tennessee football dominated its third straight Big Ten opponent in a bowl game, as the Vols owned the Huskers 38-24.

Clearly, Butch Jones knows how to get his team ready to play when he has a month to prepare, as his program continues to do that each year.

In this game, anybody with eyes could see that the Vols had played nearly a perfect game with a few exceptions.

They dominated on both sides of the ball, and the stars stepped up to make plays when they needed to.

In the end, the Vols finished 9-4 for the second straight season thanks to this performance, and they’ll also likely have their second straight Top 25 finish, something they haven’t done since 2006 and 2007.

The performance was the result of lots of players doing their part and the key players changing the game and putting up huge numbers.

And although Nebraska was hit with key injuries in this game, the Vols managed to exploit some of their strengths.

We’ll get to that here as we grade each Tennessee unit on its performance in the Music City Bowl. As always, we’ll have an overall grade for each side of the ball, special teams, and coaching, and we’ll also grade the different units on those sides.

Here is the official Tennessee football report card after its 38-24 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Dec 30, 2016; Nashville , TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) celebrates with Tennessee Volunteers offensive lineman Dylan Wiesman (71) after a touchdown during the first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Offense

Quarterback: A

Is there anything more we can say about Joshua Dobbs here? He went 23-of-38 for 291 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. Meanwhile, he carried the ball 11 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns, giving himself four total touchdowns and 409 total yards on the day. Of course he gets an A in his final performance of his career as the Music City Bowl MVP!

Dobbs missed on a couple of throws, as he usually does, and he lost yards on one running play. That’s the only reason this isn’t an A+. But he still was the best performer out there and earned this grade.

Running Backs: B+

They weren’t their usual dominant selves, mainly because Joshua Dobbs took over the game, but John Kelly and Alvin Kamara still had great performances. On the ground, kelly was the star back with 15 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown.

However, Kamara delivered an encore in what we later found out was his final game as a Vol. He had seven carries for 31 yards and added seven receptions for 46 yards. The only reason this isn’t higher is because Kamara dropped two sure touchdown passes in the game. But the running backs were still good enough to do their jobs.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: B

Jason Croom and Josh Malone are the only reasons this grade isn’t worse. Jauan Jennings had two key drops in the game that ruined potential touchdowns, which would make this a failing grade. Ethan Wolf had a bad drop as well. However, Jennings added six receptions for 59 yards and even had two rushes for 14 yards.

Meanwhile, Wolf did have a 15-yard reception, and Josh Smith had two catches for 13 yards and an epic hurdle. But Croom added two catches for 38 yards, and Malone was the star of the show. Malone kept three drives alive with great catches, and he broke the game open with his 59-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter. That’s enough to make this a B.

Offensive Line: A+

This was the best unit of the night. Drew Richmond, Dylan Wiesman, Jashon Robertson, Brett Kendrick, and Coleman Thomas were nearly flawless as the starters. They only had a few rust penalties due to not playing so long.

However, that was all nullified. On the ground, the Tennessee football had 230 total yards on 38 carries, averaging over six yards a carry. Meanwhile, Joshua Dobbs was not sacked one time on Friday, and they cleared the path for his epic performance. We finally got to see what the Vols’ offensive line could do when healthy, and they did not disappoint.

Overall Offensive Grade: A-

The running backs and receivers were solid, and the quarterback and offensive line were great. That’s enough to earn an A grade on this side of the ball.

Dec 30, 2016; Nashville , TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive end Derek Barnett (9) and Tennessee Volunteers defensive lineman Jonathan Kongbo (1) talk with Nebraska Cornhuskers quarterback Ryker Fyfe (17) after a near sack during the first half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Defense

Defensive Line: A+

Just like the offensive line, the defensive line was nearly flawless. Yes, Tennessee football won this battle in the trenches, where Nebraska owned them in the 1990s. Despite being decimated at defensive tackle and having trouble stopping the run up the middle sometimes, the Vols and Bob Shoop made adjustments.

Nebraska could not get to the 100-yard mark on the ground. Meanwhile, the linemen made plays all over the field. In total, they had four sacks from LaTroy Lewis, Jonathan Kongbo, Corey Vereen, and of course, Derek Barnett. With Vereen and Lewis seniors and Barnett likely playing his last game, they delivered great encores. The unit also had five total tackles for a loss and seven quarterback hurries. And this is one of the top offensive lines in football they did this against while hampered with injuries. So yes, this unit gets a perfect grade.

Linebackers: A-

Part of the Vols’ problem in stopping the run up the middle early was due to the struggles of the outside linebackers like Cortez McDowell. However, he adjusted quickly to keep the unit from getting to 100 yards on the night. And Darrin Kirkland Jr. was a star on the day with seven tackles, four of which were solo, and two tackles for a loss.

McDowell added seven tackles himself, and together, they helped the defensive line in not allowing a Nebraska rushing touchdown from a running back. As a result, they deserve credit for their performance. The only other bad play late in the game was leaving Ryker Fyfe alone and letting him run for a touchdown. But they did enough to overcome that.

Secondary: B

They were going up against a backup quarterback and had a front seven helping them out by getting great pressure all night. But the Tennessee football secondary still had some serious lapses. Brandon Reilly torched Malik Foreman and Emmanuel Moseley, and as a backup Fyfe had 243 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. Given the help they had up front, that was inexcusable for the secondary.

However, they still get a B because of key players. Cameron Sutton shut down his side of the field in his final game, as always. Foreman forced a fumble in the second half in an amazing play. And Rashaan Gaulden and Todd Kelly Jr. managed to be all over the field in making impressive tackles. Those things are more than enough to give this unit a B.

Overall Defensive Grade: A-

In reality, this unit only gave up 17 points, and they held Nebraska to barely over 300 yards of total offense. After an atrocious run down the stretch of the year, the group got healthy and had a very strong finish to the season. So they deserve credit for it.

Dec 30, 2016; Nashville , TN, USA; General view of Nissan Stadium in the second half of the Music City Bowl between the Tennessee Volunteers and Nebraska Cornhuskers. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Special Teams

Place-Kicking: A-

Aaron Medley surprised us all by nailing a 46-yard field goal and also not missing any of his extra points. So as a field goal kicker, he warranted an A+. However, as the kickoff specialist, he did not.

Medley had two kickoffs go out of bounds and another one that was returned to the 33-yard line. Those things spotted Nebraska very good field position and signify an awful day kicking the ball off. However, he still deserves to stay in the A range because field goal kicking is far more important than whether or not you keep teams inside the 30 on kickoffs. And he still had four touchbacks and one kickoff that pinned Nebraska inside the 15. So it was a fine performance.

Punting: A-

Trevor Daniel had two punts go into the end zone for a touchback, and he also had a 37-yard punt. Those would be enough to drag his numbers down, but his other three punts were amazing punts.

One punt was a 50-yarder that wasn’t returned. That counts for something. Two more pinned the Nebraska Cornhuskers inside the two-yard line. With those three punts, he did more than enough to warrant an A grade here, especially when you consider that one of his touchback punts was still a 50-plus yard punt. He helped the Vols with field position all night as a crucial weapon, averaging 43.3 yards per punt. For that, we give him an A-.

Return Game: D

Cameron Sutton returned one punt for one yard, and he returned a kickoff for 24 yards. There were no return touchdowns.

Meanwhile, however, Tyler Byrd had a solid kickoff return for 32 yards…until he fumbled. That fumble allowed Nebraska to make the Music City Bowl a one-score game in the fourth and required the Tennessee football offense to give the Vols some breathing room again. As a result, the return game gets a D. It did nothing spectacular, but it had a terrible play that kept Nebraska in the game.

Overall Special Teams Grade: C+

Aaron Medley and Trevor Daniel were solid and crucial parts of the Vols in this game, but the terrible play of the return game was enough to drag this down to a C grade. After all, that play did more to help Nebraska than any special teams play did to help the Vols.

Dec 30, 2016; Nashville , TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Butch Jones reacts to his team scoring a touchdown against the Nebraska Cornhuskers during the first half at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Brown-USA TODAY Sports

Coaching: A

Butch Jones and his staff have been the topics of tons of criticism over the past month, but they really do deserve a ton of credit for how they coached in the Music City Bowl. It’s the third straight time they’ve done a great coaching job in the bowl game.

Let’s start with the staff.

Mike DeBord had a great game-plan all day. He mixed the run and pass well, and he knew exactly when to go vertical and exactly when to use Joshua Dobbs’s legs. DeBord’s play-calls should have resulted in two more touchdown passes, but they turned into drops.

Still, his game-plan allowed the offense to have over 500 total yards, so he gets lots of credit for that.

On the defensive side of the ball, Bob Shoop is still very limited in the front seven but had the healthiest unit he’d seen since the Ohio game. And he took advantage.

The Vols shut down the Nebraska Cornhuskers with the exception of two drives. But overall, they held Mike Riley’s team to barely over 300 yards of total offense, and the front seven was vicious. He also made the brilliant call to move Derek Barnett to the other side on a play so he could get the sacks record.

Special teams was a bit of an issue, but that’s more on the players than it was on Larry Scott.

Now we get to Butch Jones.

Jones did an amazing job, while being scored by fans across the country, getting his team ready for this bowl game. For the third straight year, he showed how good he is at preparing his team with a month off.

But what he did this year was more impressive. Tennessee could have rolled over and quit in the bowl game due to the disappointment of the season.

They didn’t.

Jones had the prepared and motivated to play, and for that, he deserves a ton of credit. You can criticize him for lots of things, but getting his players focused and motivated is not one of them.

For that, the coaching unit overall earned this A grade.

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