Tennessee - 2022 Year in Review

tsweezy · May 19, 2023

From the desk of AD / Head coach tsweezy

Hello to all of Volunteer nation! It's been a long offseason, but the start of the year is finally in sight. Rest assured, this program has been working HARD over the last few months to prepare for 2023, and I think the fans deserve to get a little look at the inner workings of this program. Let me take you on a trip through the past, present, and championship-winning future of the Tennessee football program.

Also, check Here for last years post

The Past - 2022

Season In Review

To sum it up: In the preseason, pundits expected 2022 Tennessee to take a slight step back from their 2021 performance. Preseason polls had us in the receiving votes category: 30th in the country. Roster rankings had us with the 45th most talented team, headlined by our offensive skill players which were projected as the 7th best group nationally, but held back by an atrocious 118th ranked LB squad and a mediocre defense. With a true freshman QB, few expected Tennessee to burst onto the national scene, rising as high as #2 in the nation and finishing with 12 wins and losing by 4 in the playoff semifinals with Ynoa getting an invite to New York as a Heisman finalist.

TL;DR season recap: Brandon Savage was one of 2 freshman QB starters in the country and threw for over 4000 yards. RB Ynoa had 3500 yards from scrimmage and finished 5th in Heisman voting. Tennessee went 10-2 in the regular season (big wins over Alabama, Florida State, Missouri, Kentucky, Bowling Green, loss to UGA, and head-scratching loss to Liberty). Won the SEC East, made the playoffs where they beat Michigan State, #1 seed Texas State, and then lost to WMU in the semifinal game.

Detailed 2022 Season Recap

Season Results:

Week	Opponent	Result	W/L	Ranking
1	Bowling Green	14-10	W	30
2	Florida State	30-0	W	26
3	Utah State	24-21	W	10
4	at South Carolina	24-17	W	8
5	at Liberty	14-20	L	8
6	#4 Alabama	27-12	W	22
7	#3 Missouri	30-3	W	10
8	at #17 LSU	31-14	W	6
9	Florida	38-3	W	6
11	at Georgia	19-34	L	2
12	Kentucky	37-10	W	5
14	at Vanderbilt	24-14	W	4
CCG	#5 Alabama	28-45	L	2
Liberty Bowl	#9 Michigan State	38-34	W	8
Orange Bowl	#1 Texas State	24-16	W	8
Rose Bowl	#2 Western Michigan	26-34	L	4

Final

12-4 (7-1 conference, 4-2 in rivalry games)

SEC East Champion

Playoff Semifinalist

Week-by-week:

The 2022 Season saw Tennessee storm to national prominence and display a ton of grit, winning a number of close games and having 4th quarter comebacks / living off of red zone stops.

At the beginning of the year, Bowling Green wasn't seen as a playoff team, so the 14-10 win didn't raise any eyebrows, but they won the MAC and made the playoff quarter finals so this wound up being a signature win.

Week 2 saw Tenn demolish the defending national champions 30-0 in a shocker that nobody saw coming. Savage went 27-37 for 350 yards and 3 TD - 0 INTs, while Ynoa added 136 rushing yards. Markkanen had a monster game at DT with 6 tackles, 2 TFLs, 1.5 sacks, and a FF.

That win boosted the volunteers to top-10 in the polls and they hung on in a narrow 24-21 win over Utah State.

The next week saw a similar narrow victory 24-17 at South Carolina, in a bit of a revenge game after SCAR won in 2021.

Week 5 was a classic trap game, as Tennessee was prepping for their week 6 matchup against Alabama. Liberty had a surprisingly good year and made a bowl, and were able to use HFA to win 20-14, in a game where Savage's inexperience showed: going 14-25 for just 150 yards and no TDs.

Alabama came into week 6 as the #4 team. While they had an embarrassing week 1 loss, they rolled out a new QB and offense and had scored 60+ points their last 2 games. The betting line had Bama as a big favorite in the rivalry matchup as they wanted revenge from 2021 where Tennessee scored the upset to keep them from a playoff bid. In a shocking game, Tennessee won 27-12 as the defense stepped up big time and had the Tide's number. The offense did just enough while the defense recorded 3 INTs including a pick-six to style on Bama and show that this team was worth taking seriously.

Immediately afterwards Tennessee hosted #3 Missouri, who had a dominant interior DL and a star QB Leamon. Still on last weeks high, Tennessee crushed, winning 30-3. Despite taking 5 sacks, Savage stood tall and put on a master class going 31-39 for 389 yards and 3 TDs.

Another big time ranked opponent the next week: Tennessee beat LSU 31-14, before an easier 38-3 win over Florida.

After the Florida game, Tennessee was on a bye week and got a little overconfident. Polls had them as the number 2 team in the country and fans had bought into the idea of becoming a title contender as the big games were done with and eyes were on the SEC CCG and playoff. They just needed to win 1/3 of UGA/Kentucky/Vanderbilt to take the East for the first time.

Unfortunately, they rolled into Athens unprepared for Georgia's new gameplan. They were baffled by Outman's scrambling, and kept getting lost on defense as they fell 19-34. Savage and Ynoa were sluggish that day, with 75 yards on 26 rushing attempts and 14-26 passing for 215 yards and 2 INTs. Tsweezy took the blame for the loss saying the staff slacked on preparation and weren't ready for all the new looks UGA was rolling out (tbf, UGA dominated the last third of the season after those changes).

Now, with it looking necessary to beat Kentucky and Vandy to get a playoff bid the pressure was on. Preseason top-10 Kentucky was still floundering and got blasted 37-10 by a newly focused TENN squad where Ynoa dropped 224 rushing yards as he turned on the afterburners at seasons end.

Vanderbilt was a not-as-close-as-the-score 24-14 win and all of a sudden Tennessee had completed a 10-2 season, won the East, and was the #2 team in the CFP rankings.

Post Season

The SEC championship was a rematch against Bama, and as is typical, rematches are much harder to win. The Volunteer defense could not muster up 3 INTs again and gave up a season high 45 points. Savage was playing very well, going 26-37 for 375 and 2 TDs, but threw 2 untimely INTs as Tennessee took a hard L.

Luckily, things fell their way and they made the playoffs as a 9 seed. First matchup was against Michigan State and the 3rd place Heisman finalist Wayne Murray. Murray showed out, with 34 points and a crazy 4th quarter near comeback, but Savage won their duel with another 26-37 performance for 395 and 2-2 TD:INTs (nearly the same line as he had against Bama). This time though, Ynoa showed his leadership and the senior RB poured it on with 319 rushing yards, 3 TDs, and another 54 receiving yards. Just a monster game where he showed he could absolutely dominate.

The Orange Bowl was another big matchup as they faced #1 Texas State: The winningest sim program who had gone 14-2 the year before and 14-0 this year with heisman runner up Justin DeShields. However, once again it was Tennessee on top at the end of the day as the Defense held DeShields to 16 points while Ynoa added 150 on the ground and 107 in the air for his 3rd consecutive 200 yard game.

Playoff Semifinals: Rose Bowl against #2 Western Michigan and Heisman Winner Theo Scribner. Tennessee went max pass defense this game, and only allowed 39 rushing yards (11/15 rushing attempts were <1 yard allowed, and there was a 32 yard run). However, Scribner was unstoppable and put up 553 yards on 42/59 passing as the WMU passing offense cooked Tennessee. Savage actually outplayed Scribner in efficiency as he went 21/27 for 327 yards, but Ynoa's hot streak ended with a pedestrian 125 rushing on 39 carries (and another 125 in the air) as the offense sputtered in the red zone, kicking field goals at WMU's 1, 10, 10, 27, and punted from their 36. An extremely close game that was eminently winnable and the season came to a close.

Season Highlights:

Beating Alabama week 6 by a score of 27-12 where the defense had 3 INTs including a pick-six. This game showed Tennessee was a legitimate national contender.

Revenge rivalry win against Kentucky 37-10 as Tennessee laid claim to being the new SEC East power.

Beating #1 Texas State 24-16 during a post-season 4-game run where Ynoa averaged over 250 yards from scrimmage and Savage outplayed the top-3 heisman finalists: Murray, DeShields, Scribner.

Team and Player Review

Redshirts

Before the season, Tennessee redshirted 16 members of its 25-person recruiting class, all freshmen from their #1 recruiting cycle:

Position	Archetype	Name	Stars	Overall	Potential
OT	Pass Blocking	Myles Hernandez	4	B	C+
DT	Nose Tackle	Johnathan Sowell	4	B	B-
DE	Balanced	Douglas Dimmadome Jr.	4	B	B+
WR	Possession	Alex Smith-Schuster	4	B	C+
CB	Zone Coverage	Lorenzo Travis	4	B	C
CB	Zone Coverage	Justin Gsellman	4	B	C+
WR	Route Runner	Quincy Stanton	4	B	C
OT	Balanced	Ricky Drummond	4	B	C
SS	Man Coverage	Brandon Duffey	4	B	C+
RB	Receiving	Jose Bandy	4	B	C+
ILB	Field General	Joe Lawson	4	B	C-
OG	Run Blocking	Steven Henry	4	B	C+
C	Balanced	Marcus Morrow	4	B	C
FS	Ball Hawk	Mike De Leon	3	C	A
DE	Speed Rusher	Kiko Garcia	3	C	B+

Awards:

Team MVP:

Aldrick Ynoa, hands down. Tennessee's first Heisman finalist, Aldrick went for 2585 rushing yards (3rd in the country) and 1033 receiving yards (most in the country for RBs). The 3618 scrimmage yards were MOST IN THE COUNTRY. Absurdly productive and averaged over 250 yards from the CCG through the bowl games. Savage had the sexiness, but Aldrick was the true engine for this team. His 31 touchdowns were also 2nd most in the country. The man was a monster who feasted in big games. We're extremely proud to have him. Not bad for a 4 star A- overall from Orlando

Team OPOTY

see: MVP. Ynoa deserves all the accolades he wants

Team DPOTY

SS Zac Hill was our DPOTY last season, and while he maintained his excellence in captaining the team, he came in second this year because we couldn't overlook the contributions from DT Jason Marte. He led the team with 19 TFLs and 2nd with 5.5 sacks. He also recorded 2 FFs and overall was a speedy cinderblock up the middle to shut down opponents run game.

Team Freshman of the Year

Was this in doubt? Savage obviously. 4000 yards as a freshman and a 3:1 TD:INT ratio, he was one of only 2 freshman QB starters in the country (and the other one was much worse for UNC). He outdueled the top-3 heisman finalist QBs in the post-season and made every throw on the field. He did get sacked a bit too much, and threw some untimely INTs as he wasn't perfect in every game. But for a true freshman it was unbelievable the poise he showed. The only other true freshman contributor was RB Joe Williams who added 182 rushing yards in rotation duty and was 7/7 receptions for 85 yards. With 3 total TDs, he showed some flashes of why coaches have him tagged as the future of the position.

Team Captains

SS Zac Hill

RB Aldrick Ynoa

WR Alex Henderson

C Noah Prater

FB Brad Richardson

Departures

A fond farewell to our seniors this year who took the program to the next level and got to experience a playoff run. Congratulations, and good luck to those of you who will be continuing our football dreams in the NFL.

Total Departures:

11 starters (4 offense, 6 defense, 1 kicker)

4 A overalls, 11 B overalls, 5 C overalls (last year was 4/16/3)

Name	Position	Archetype	Stars	State	Overall
Noah Prater	C	Pass Blocking	4	CA	A
Alex Henderson	WR	Red Zone Threat	4	MD	A
Zac Hill	SS	Zone Coverage	4	WA	A-
Aldrick Ynoa	RB	Speed	4	FL	A-
Francis Horst	CB	Man Coverage	3	NC	B+
Joe Solder	FS	Zone Coverage	3	MI	B+
Max Bradberry	DE	Run Stopper	3	GA	B+
Albert Rosales	OLB	Coverage	3	NC	B+
Adrian Richburg	OT	Pass Blocking	3	AL	B+
Ian Merritt	DE	Balanced	3	KY	B
Saeed Smith	K	Accuracy	3	OH	B
Franklin Olstad	QB	Pocket	3	UT	B-
Brad Richardson	FB	Blocking	2	NC	B-
Jacob Shipley	DT	Balanced	2	NC	B-
Josh Grilli	ILB	Field General	2	GA	B-
Leyson Romero	TE	Blocking	2	TX	C+
Jake Dixon	OG	Pass Blocking	2	CA	C+
Joe McClellan	OLB	Pass Rush	2	KS	C+
Wilfredo Powell	QB	Pocket	2	IN	C+
Maurice Rodgers	ILB	Coverage	2	IN	C+

Draft Results:

C Noah Prater - Round 1, Pick 9 to Kansas City

WR Alex Henderson - Round 1, Pick 15 to Dallas

RB Aldrick Ynoa- Round 3, Pick 81 to Minnesota

SS Zac Hill - Round 7, Pick 221 to Tennessee

Recruiting

Class Signees

Stars

Overall

Position

Name

Archetype

Potential

2023 Plans


5	B	DT	Ernesto Moran	Pass Rusher	D+	Redshirt
5	B+	DE	Roger London	Speed Rusher	B-	Redshirt
4	B	CB	James Peckham	Zone Coverage	C	Redshirt
4	B-	FS	Eric Tate	Man Coverage	B-	Redshirt
4	B-	OG	James Hilton	Pass Blocking	C	Redshirt
4	B-	OG	Nicholas Crosby	Pass Blocking	C+	Redshirt
4	B-	OT	Jason Bush	Run Blocking	C+	Redshirt
4	B-	WR	George Simpson	Possesion	C+	Redshirt
4	C+	DE	Steven Carnahan	Balanced	C	3rd String / ST
4	C+	ILB	Ricky Billups	Speed	C+	3rd string / ST
4	C+	QB	Mark Koch	Balanced	B	3rd string / Scout team
4	C+	RB	Peter Meyers	Receiving	C-	Redshirt
4	C+	TE	Kenneth Cox	Receiving	B-	Redshirt
3	C	DE	Luis Barron	Run Stopper	C+	Special Teams
3	C	DT	Jonathan Key	Pass Rusher	A+	Redshirt
3	C	OLB	Armando Perez	Coverage	B+	Redshirt
3	C	SS	Daryl Anderson	Ball Hawk	B-	Redshirt
3	C	TE	Darrell Foster	Receiving	C-	Special Teams
3	C	WR	James Jones	Speed	C-	Special Teams
3	C	WR	Roland Steward	Red Zone Threat	C	Special Teams

247 rank: 2nd

Rivals rank: 1st

ESPN rank: 4th

Composite rank: 1st

Blue chips: 13 (2nd)

Highlights

We were overall ok with this years class. It wasn't a unanimous #1 in every aspect like last years, and we didn't get the best player in the country to be a freshman starter a la Savage last year, but it is solid, particularly in the top-half. It was a frustrating year on the trail, as we went 2/11 in blue chip coin flip decisions, but the players we did end up with are plenty good enough to contend for championships. In particular, we are quite happy with the top shelf defensive line, secondary, and offensive line players we signed. Bit of a miss at LB and WR after we lost some flips, but next cycle we'll hit those positions hard. After last years studs, it's going to be quite hard for any of these players to see immediate playing time (probably why we only gave out 20 scholarships and accepted 5 walkons), so there is going to be heavy use of redshirts, with some players going to special teams, and Koch heading the scout team offense as we groom him for his career backup role.

As you can see in the map below, whereas last year we went heavy national, this year we tried to stick to our pipeline states in the southeast, hitting Georgia in particular very hard.

Map

Technical Analysis

This past season we rolled with a pro-style offense, trying to make heavy use of Ynoa's legs and easing Savage into the year with a lot of play action concepts. We varied our RTP ratios between 40-70 depending on how the defense looked against the run. I think it went quite well, we had good possession receivers and the OL played great even with Savage being basically a statue.

On defense we ran a 4-3 due to our much better DTs than ILBs. I am very, very proud of our Defensive coordinators game plan. On paper our defense was middling, with just average talent across the board. However, Zac Hill cleaned up just about all the big plays, we had very opportunistic players who consistently came up with timely turnovers, and our DL was stout against the run allowing the back-7 to play the pass primarily. We had our down moments (at Georgia, the SEC CCG, Rose Bowl), but on the whole those were outliers instead of the norm.

Next season we'll likely have to modify our offense as we lose our star RB, but the defense should hopefully be able to similarly clamp down as we have a minor improvement in talent on that side.

VII. Fan Perspective

Fan Reactions:

[Facebook Post]: "What a season for the Vols, I tell ya! If you'd told me before the season started that we'd finish with 12 wins, I'd have had you committed! Shoutout to Ynoa for being an absolute beast on the field. I'll be buying his jersey as soon as he gets drafted. Roll Vols! 🍊🍊"
[Tweet]: "Just spent my entire lunch break arguing with an Alabama fan about who had the better season. Let's just say, my smile was wider than the gap between Savage's passing yards and their QB's. #GoVols #SorryNotSorry"
[Reddit Thread]: "Well folks, we may have lost to WMU in the semis, but remember, we smashed Alabama, defeated Florida State, and gave Liberty a taste of true football. Proud to be a Vol! 🔶⚪️ Next season, let's come back even stronger!"
[Instagram Story]: "In the sea of orange and white at Neyland, and all I can say is, wow! What a season! That pick-six against Alabama will be my screensaver for life. #GBO"
: "Say what you want, but Savage is the real deal. Threw for over 4k yards as a TRUE FRESHMAN! Kid's gonna be the GOAT if he keeps it up. Time to rebuild our defense for next season though."