Tennessee - 2023 Year in Review

[tsweezy]

From the desk of AD / Head coach tsweezy

Hello to all of Volunteer nation! As we start experiencing the first pangs of the long and dark offseason, I offer you this chance to relive last season. This team worked their ass off last year and here is a sneak peek into some of the inner thoughts in the program. 

 

2023 Season In Review

 

Check here for the 2023 season preview article.

The basics: national pundits saw the 2022 playoff semifinal appearance and predicted more of the same with Tennessee at number 3 in the preseason AP poll. Southeastern media members and program internal sources were a little more bearish with most predicting a 9-10 win regular season. There were a lot of questions about the leaky looking OL and lack of any good RBs with Ynoa off making noise in Minnesota. With the defense looking porous as well, everyone thought it would be a fun season full of shoot-outs and big numbers. By roster rankings, Tennessee had shot up from the 45th most talented team to 14th as tsweezy got in his 2nd crooting class. While that seems high, the initial schedule looked rough against 3 top-5 talent teams. Reigning national champion Alabama and preseason top-5 Kentucky and FSU (to say nothing of UGA) made for a daunting path. Luckily though, none of those teams were quite as good as initially expected.

TL;DR Season Recap: Brandon Savage was even better than advertised. Even without a functional running game the man led Tennessee to a 12-0 regular season and a Heisman trophy. The defense was actually quite stout as well, looking like a top-15 unit despite on paper talent suggesting otherwise. Unfortunately their achilles heel was the air raid as Auburn took advantage to beat them in the SEC CCG. Tennessee did re-group and beat Marshall to make the playoff semifinals for the second straight year, where they ultimately fell in a shockingly lopsided game to TCU. 

 

Detailed 2023 Season Recap

 

Season Results:

Week	Opponent	Result	W/L	Ranking
1	Maryland	45-7	W	3
2	at #2 Florida State	40-21	W	1
3	Southern Miss	33-3	W	1
4	at Florida	45-21	W	1
5	#12 South Carolina	44-13	W	1
6	Texas A&M	41-24	W	1
7	at #20 Kentucky	27-24	W	1
8	at Chattanooga	60-0	W	2
9	at Missouri	48-3	W	1
11	at Alabama	34-17	W	1
12	#9 Georgia	45-17	W	1
14	Vanderbilt	50-21	W	1
CCG	#6 Auburn	20-40	L	1
Fiesta Bowl	#12 Marshall	34-24	W	4
Rose Bowl	#1 TCU	30-42	L	4

 

 

Final

13-2 (8-0 conference, 5-0 in rivalry games)

SEC East Champion

Playoff Semifinalist

 

 

Week-by-week:

The 2023 Season saw Tennessee run pretty much wire to wire in the regular season with a record setting offense and a near-dominant defense. The only reason this team didn't set almost every record was the introduction of garbage time. In the 12 regular season games, the backups played for 9.5 quarters (20% of the season) and the backup defense in particular gave up almost 1/3 of the season points allowed. 

The season started with a seeming tune-up against Maryland in the back half of the home and home. Our first look at the team in real game action featured Savage throwing for over 400 yards and 5 TDs, WRs Hayes Edwards and Matt Siri each gathering > 200 receiving yards, the backups (and later third string) getting significant playing time, all while the defense held UMD to 7 points. 45-7 final score.

The next week was the off-season most hyped game of the year. #1 Tennessee travelling down to Tallahassee to face #2 FSU. FSU was coming off a 70 point win in week 1 and RB Clayton Mcgee looked unstoppable, along with the defense and it's 3 A overall CBs. This was probably the game that won Savage the Heisman honestly as he threw for over 600 yards and the defense notched 4 sacks along with holding Mcgee under 100 yards rushing. 

The offense looked a bit hungover the next week, putting up their second worst game of the season against southern miss. Luckily the defense came through and TENN won the game 33-3.

The next 3 weeks saw Tenn roll through conference play, going up ~40-10 against Florida, South Carolina, and Texas A&M in the third quarter before the backups rolled in (and gave up a few scores). Cruising along

The next big game circled was traveling to a #20 Kentucky team. Despite early losses to Georgia and USC, Kentucky still looked stacked on paper. This was a slugfest as the Lexington home crowd caused a few penalties and there was some uncharacteristic poor play by the offense. Luckily the defense played well and they scored just enough points to squeak by 27-24

Tennessee absolutely pasted Chattanooga and Missouri the next 2 weeks.

Alabama hate week came at an inopportune time as the Tide had found their footing after a horrific start to the season. Despite the ground attack recording only 13 yards on 13 carries, Savage threw for nearly 500 to lift the team to a 34-17 victory and claim revenge from the previous years SEC CCG. 

The last real hurdle was against a top-10 Georgia team with a lot of veteran leadership and a well rounded roster. Luckily the game was in Knoxville and Savage out-dueled Outman throwing 6 TDs as they outpaced the Dawgs through the end. 

An easy win over a dogwater Vandy squad and boom. 12-0 regular season, only undefeated team in the country, #1 in the rankings with the Heisman frontrunner in Brandon Savage (5000 passing yards in the regular season despite sitting for the equivalent of 2 games). How could life get any better?

Unfortunately the team got too fat and happy and the air raid squad of Moncrief and Hester from Auburn pulled off the SEC CCG upset. For the second year in a row the Volunteers went to Atlanta as the favorites and fell to a team from Alabama. Sad.

They hung on to the #4 spot in the rankings which gave them a first round playoff bye which saw Marshall pull a huge upset over Notre Dame. In the quarterfinals, the Volunteers played the Thundering Herd, a team with one of the strongest run blocking OLs of all time and a dominant ground game (albeit no ability to pass). The defense held tight and Savage had a solid day, lifting the team to a 34-24 victory and a Fiesta Bowl Trophy.

The semi-final was in gorgeous Pasadena at the Rose Bowl. We got absolutely pasted by TCU. Moving on

 

Team and Player Review

 

Redshirts

Last season Tennessee redshirted 16/25 of the 2021 recruiting class. This season they mostly continued that strategy with 13 redshirts in the 2022 class and redshirted 2 sophomores (RB Joe Williams and OLB Henry Andriese) who were good talents but not projected starters.

Position	Archetype	Name	Stars	Overall	Potential Grade
RB	Receiving	Joe Williams	4	B+	B-
DT	Pass Rusher	Ernesto Moran	5	B	D+
DE	Speed Rusher	Roger London	5	B+	B-
CB	Zone Coverage	James Peckham	4	B	C
OLB	Coverage	Henry Andriese	4	B-	C
WR	Possesion	George Simpson	4	B-	C+
OG	Pass Blocking	James Hilton	4	B-	C
OG	Pass Blocking	Nicholas Crosby	4	B-	C+
OT	Run Blocking	Jason Bush	4	B-	C+
FS	Man Coverage	Eric Tate	4	B-	B-
ILB	Speed	Ricky Billups	4	C+	C+
TE	Receiving	Kenneth Cox	4	C+	B-
DT	Pass Rusher	Jonathan Key	3	C-	A+
OLB	Coverage	Armando Perez	3	C-	B+
SS	Ball Hawk	Daryl Anderson	3	C-	B-

 

Awards:

 

Team MVP:

How is this a question? Brandon Savage. The man was the HEISMAN TROPHY winner and put up ungodly numbers in 13/15 games this season. We are so lucky as a program to have signed him. I can't sing his praises high enough and I'm absolutely sure 75% of coaches around the league are sick of hearing about him. Too bad. Final season stats: 6649 yards, 52 TDs.

Team OPOTY

see: MVP. Savage is the obvious choice. Nobody else moved the needle outside the WR room and they had too many cooks.

Team DPOTY

ILB JT Adams was the absolute lynchpin of our defense. As an A- overall run stopper he helped man the front-7 in a defense that was excellent all year against the run (TCU game aside). By far the team leader in tackles along with 25 TFLs, 1 strip-sack, 2 INTs, and a safety. We will miss him dearly.

Team Freshman of the Year

There were not a lot of freshmen who played, and only 2 true freshmen recorded any stats at all: DE Roger London (5 tackles, 1 FF before redshirting after game 4), and QB Mark Koch (22/34 197 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT in 3rd string mop-up duty). This award though goes to RS FR Doug Dimmadome Jr. Son of Doug Dimmadome owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome. DDJr was 5th on the team with 4 TFLs, 2 sacks, and a FR as he established himself as a valuable DL rotational member. 

 

Team Captains

ILB JT Adams

DT Steve Markkanen

QB Brandon Savage

WR Matt Siri

C Emmanuel Matthews

 

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:

13 starters (6 offense, 6 defense, 1 kicker)

5 A overalls, 1 A- overall, 16 B/B+/B- overalls, 2 C overalls

 

Recruiting

Class Signees

Stars	Overall	Position	Name	Archetype	Potential
5	B	OT	David France	Pass Blocking	B
5	B	QB	Jake O'Connor	Pocket	C
5	B	WR	Joseph Kleen	Red Zone Threat	B+
5	B	WR	B.J. Flash	Speed	B+
5	B	OG	Charles Le	Pass Blocking	C
5	B	OLB	Tee Sweezy	Coverage	B
4	B	CB	Wendell Gallagher	Zone Coverage	C
4	B	RB	David Forsberg	Receiving	C
4	B	DE	Armando Medina	Speed Rusher	C+
4	C	K	Bruce Knight	Power	A+
4	C	P	Amir Stevens	Accuracy	B
4	C	SS	Kevin Wells	Man Coverage	B
3	C	CB	Robert Carranza	Zone Coverage	A
3	C	OLB	Kenneth Nestle	Pass Rush	C+
3	C	OLB	Daniel Folks	Run Stopper	B-
3	C	DE	Houston Wood	Balanced	C+
3	C	C	David Ventura	Pass Blocking	A
3	C	ILB	Joseph Cochran	Coverage	C
3	C	DT	Douglas Laycock	Balanced	C
3	C	DT	Heriberto Alegria	Balanced	C-
3	C	TE	David Spalding	Vertical Threat	C+
3	C	OG	Gerald Taylor	Balanced	C
3	C	FS	Jose Hernandez	Man Coverage	C+
0	D	OT	Fred Eilerman	Run Blocking	D+
0	D	QB	Scott Wood	Field General	C+

 

 

247 rank: 1st

Rivals rank: 1st

ESPN rank: 1st

Composite rank: 1st

Blue chips: 12 (2nd)

 

Highlights

This was a pretty good class on the whole, in a totally different way from the last 2 classes. We went away from hunting for a ton of blue chip depth and went hard for top-shelf impact players. In contrast to last years 2/11 blue chip flip results, we went something like 7/10 this season which felt AMAZING by the way. Highly recommend. 5 5-stars on offense is an absolutely absurd haul and I cannot wait to see this class show up on the field with a 5-star QB, 2 WRs, 2 OL, a B overall RB signee, and 2 5-star OLs. On defense, coach sweezy's nephew (5-star OLB Tee Sweezy) was the jewel of the class although we also signed a few other impact defenders. We also picked up the #1 K prospect in the class and a future punter. 

Awaiting early enrollee decisions, David France, Tee Sweezy, and B.J. Flash have the potential to challenge for snaps as true freshmen. Everyone else is in line for redshirts.

 

Technical Analysis

This past season we transitioned from a pro offense with Ynoa and Savage into an air raid to focus on Savage's connection with the WR power duo of Edwards and Siri. We cranked the RTP ratio down to 20% and flung it around the yard. Our RBs were basically shit and we went with a 50-50 split between J.C. Hardy and QB convert Aytaba Johnson. Neither one were very good. The OL was leaky as hell too, but Savage had put a ton of work into pocket mobility over the offseason and actually posted some pretty good sack avoidance numbers. 

On defense we were an interior led team with the 2 A overall DTs and ILB JT Adams stifling opponent run games. Our safeties generally stopped big plays from developing as well. Despite the weak OLBs / CBs, we held up against everyone aside from Auburn and TCU who exposed the lack of short pass defense we had. On the whole, while the season long numbers look meh, our per-game averages (with starters in) were quite good and they only allowed ~13 ppg against in the regular season. Definitely a step forward from last season even without elite talent. Per norm, we hardly blitzed at all which led to some lower sack numbers, but not getting burned by screen passes much. If we get a good secondary next year I'll look into bumping that up more.

 

Fan Perspective

Fan Reactions:

1. Twitter Reactions:

   @Vol_Fanatic23: Can't believe we fell short again! Savage deserved better. We'll come back stronger next year! #Vols #SavageHeisman

   @SEC_FootballFan: Tough loss, but the Vols had an incredible run this season! Unstoppable offense led by Savage. #SECChampionship #OnToNextYear

   @OrangeArmy: Heartbreaking end, but proud of our Vols! Savage's Heisman win was well-deserved. #VFL #SavageSensation

   r/CFB subreddit:

   Title: "Tennessee Vols: A Season of Triumphs and Heartbreaks"

   Post: "What a rollercoaster of a season! Savage's Heisman win, dominant victories against rivals, and that epic showdown against FSU! Let's discuss the highs and lows of the 2023 Vols' journey."

   Knoxville Tribune: "Vols' Stellar Season Comes to an End in Playoff Semifinals - Brandon Savage's Heisman Triumph Overshadowed by TCU Loss"

   Twitter Reactions:

   @SEC_SuperFanatic: Hot diggity dog! Vols, you put the 'super' in superstar! That game against FSU was like watching a football ballet! Keep your heads up, champions! You're still our heroes! #SECChampsInOurHearts

   @BigOrangeThunder: Noooooooooo! The universe is as cruel as a junkyard dog! Savage, you're our golden nugget in a river of pebbles! We'll be back like a freight train on fire! #VFL4Ever #SavageSensationForever

   Radio Stations:

   ESPN Knoxville: "Vols' Season Revisited in the Halls of Valhalla - Savage's Meteoric Rise to Heisman Glory Leaves Fans Yearning for More Gridiron Magic!"

 Conclusion

 

For those worried that 2022 was just a flash in the pan, 2023 showed that Tennessee had staying power as a program. A second consecutive semifinal appearance and SEC East crown were surprise achievements that showed Rocky Top is a top program in the country. While next season may be a slight step back, the overall trend for this program is an upwards arrow. 
Thank you all for reading, and Go VOLS!

 

How do you think Tennessee will do next year?

Did this season meet, fall below, or exceed your expectations?

Who will next year's break-out players be?

[Sarge]

How do you think Tennessee will do next year?

VOLS SMELL

 

Did this season meet, fall below, or exceed your expectations?

MET EXPECTATIONS 

Who will next year's break-out players be?

BRANDON SAVAGE.

[Rocketcan]

58 minutes ago, Sarge said:

Who will next year's break-out players be?

BRANDON SAVAGE.

Can you breakout twice?

[tsweezy]

1 hour ago, Sarge said:

 

Who will next year's break-out players be?

BRANDON SAVAGE.

If he hasn’t broken out yet I’m almost scared of what numbers he’d put up in a break out year