Chasing History: Tennessee's March to the Record Books

[tsweezy]

Well, we're down to the last week of the regular season (Vanderbilt delenda est) and we are in the midst of one of the most explosive offenses college football has seen. Lets pause for a second and take stock of some of the records Volunteers fans are hoping the team can take down if they continue this form for at least a few games more.

1: Team Yardage

Record-holder:
Currently the record for YPG sits with 2022 Michigan State. Behind the arm of Wayne Murray the Spartans put up 550 yards per game en route to a playoff appearance.

Tennessee pace: 

Tennessee is averaging 570.5 yards per game at the moment, a little bit of a cushion over Michigan State but they'll definitely need big games against Vanderbilt (delenda est) and Auburn to keep it

 

2: Team Points

Record-holder:
Just like yardage, the points per game record was set by 2022 Michigan State who put up 36.78 points per game.

Tennessee pace:

Unlike yardage per game, Tennessee has a pretty big lead for PPG. The Volunteers are currently averaging 42 points per game.

 

3: Average Point Differential

Record-holder:

2021 Illinois surprisingly has this record. With an average point differential of 18.64, they were blowing a ton of folks out, but got snipped early in the playoffs in a super deep B1G West (what happened to it?)

Tennessee pace:

This is the most likely record to break. Tennessee average Margin of Victory this season is 28.36

 

4: Wins by 17+

Record-holder:

This one might not be surprising, but the team with the most 3 score wins in a season was 2021 runner-up Florida State with 10. 

Tennessee pace:

Tennessee actually has already tied this number this week with their 10th 3-score victory in 11 games. With Vanderbilt and Auburn still to play, you would expect the Commodores to get trounced, although it's not a guarantee

 

5: Passing Yardage

Record-holder:

While Michigan State holds the overall yardage record for offense, it is actually 2021 Florida State who passed for the most yardage. Behind Matt Howard, the Seminoles averaged 498.5 passing yards per game. This is also of course the individual record as every single one of those yards came from Howard en route to a 7977 yard season.

Tennessee pace:

Even with backups playing a ton of minutes, the Volunteers are ahead of pace, as they are averaging 509 passing yards per game this season. While they may take the team record, Brandon Savage is unlikely to crack the individual record as he is only averaging 462 yards per game (although still leading the nation this year). I think he could get it if he played every snap like Howard did, but he hasn't so it'll take some record performances (and defensive lapses) to get close for him.

 

6: Passing Touchdowns

Record-holder:

This mark is actually tied. Both Theo Scribner last year for Western Michigan and 2021 Yusei Asencio of Ohio put up 55 passing touchdowns (which are also the team records)

Tennessee pace:

Brandon Savage just tossed 6 to put him at 42 on the season and technically above the pace of the current record-holders per game. However for him to get 13 more he will likely need to make it to at least the playoff semifinals. Within the realm of possibility but not guaranteed. 

As a team though, backup QB Walter Morgan has thrown 3 and freshman Mark Koch scored another so Tennessee has 46 on the season, and I do like the odds for the team as a whole to put up at least 9 more. 

 

There you have it folks! 6-8 big time national records that the Tennessee offense is closing in on. Which ones do you think are most likely to be broken? Which ones are most impressive? Stay tuned for next week's game as either Vanderbilt gets demolished or scores their 2nd massive upset of the season over the over-confident Vols!

[Kirby]

Matt Howard