{"id":449383,"date":"2026-09-27T15:24:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/449383\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:24:37","slug":"pff-grades-snap-counts-tennessee-football-vs-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/449383\/","title":{"rendered":"PFF Grades, Snap Counts: Tennessee Football vs. Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"tennessee\"tennessee<\/a>Photo via Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n

Tennessee football hosted top-ranked Texas on Saturday afternoon, but couldn\u2019t pull out a win. Instead, behind a weak offensive showing and strong defense, the Vols lost 20-17.<\/p>\n

Now, on Sunday morning, PFF<\/a> has finalized its game grades for Tennessee\u2019s offensive and defensive participants. Here\u2019s how the team graded out.<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Tennessee Football is in Danger of Following the Same Frustrating Trend as Past Josh Heupel Teams<\/a>
\nOffense \u2013 81 snaps<\/p>\n

LG Wendell Moe Jr. \u2013 66.7 (4 snaps)
\nWR Mike Matthews \u2013 66.1 (73)
\nRB Daune Morris \u2013 65.4 (29)
\nLT David Sanders Jr. \u2013 65.1 (81)
\nRG Donovan Haslam \u2013 63.3 (77)
\nWR Braylon Staley \u2013 62.5 (78)
\nRT Ory Williams \u2013 60.7 (4)
\nTE Trent Thomas \u2013 59.1 (33)
\nRB DeSean Bishop \u2013 58.2 (52)
\nC Sam Pendleton \u2013 58.0 (81)
\nLG\/RG Sham Umarov \u2013 57.6 (77)
\nRT\/LG Jesse Perry \u2013 57.5 (81)
\nWR TK Keys \u2013 55.3 (6)
\nTE Dasaahn Brame \u2013 54.9 (54)
\nWR Travis Smith Jr. \u2013 54.2 (10)
\nQB George MacIntyre \u2013 51.1 (6)
\nWR Radarious Jackson \u2013 47.7 (70)
\nQB Faizon Brandon \u2013 40.7 (75)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Offensively, it\u2019s easy to start at the bottom. Quarterback Faizon Brandon had the worst grade on the team at 40.7. PFF gave him a brutal 31.1 mark in the pass game, but a passable grade of 64.1 as a runner. You also look at where the offensive line is scattered throughout, and it suggests that PFF is placing more of the blame on the quarterback than the offensive line for the 10 sacks, which is debatable.<\/p>\n

The highest-graded Vol was Wendell Moe Jr., but he only played four snaps at left guard before suffering an injury and not returning. Behind him was wide receiver Mike Matthews at 66.1. Then, it goes running back Daune Morris before the top offensive lineman David Sanders Jr. clocks in.<\/p>\n

The next best lineman is Donovan Haslam at 63.3. There were questions about how he\u2019d be able to perform for the entirety of games, but he passed the eye test, and PFF agreed he performed at an above-average level throughout. Even if Tennessee is fully healthy, it may be tough not to insert Haslam as a starter going forward.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re curious about how Texas edge rusher Colin Simmons graded, who had five sacks, he was at an 89.3 grade and 91.3 as a pass rusher.<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Josh Heupel Gives Honest Assessment of Tennessee\u2019s Offensive Line Struggles Against Texas<\/a>
\nDefense \u2013 58 snaps<\/p>\n

LB Arion Carter \u2013 77.3 (58 snaps)
\nCB Kayin Lee \u2013 76.1 (58)
\nDT Xavier Gilliam \u2013 73.9 (39)
\nLB\/DE Jeremiah Telander \u2013 70.3 (37)
\nDL Carson Gentle \u2013 69.2 (16)
\nDE Mariyon Dye \u2013 68.9 (31)
\nDT Daevin Hobbs \u2013 68.2 (26)
\nDE Tyree Weathersby \u2013 67.5 (30)
\nLB Edwin Spillman \u2013 67.0 (10)
\nLB Amare Campbell \u2013 67.0 (58)
\nCB Ty Redmond \u2013 66.7 (58)
\nDE Jordan Norman \u2013 64.2 (25)
\nDT Isaiah Campbell \u2013 61.7 (5)
\nNB Tevis Metcalf \u2013 61.1 (11)
\nDT Ethan Utley \u2013 60.0 (1)
\nDT JJ Finch \u2013 55.8 (20)
\nS Dejuan Lane \u2013 52.9 (58)
\nS TJ Metcalf \u2013 51.7 (58)
\nNB Qua Moss \u2013 45.7 (40)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It makes a lot of sense that Arion Carter was the highest-graded Vol on either side of the ball. He was fantastic throughout the game and is really settling in as seemingly one of the top linebackers in the sport. Carter graded well as a run stopper, tackler, in pass coverage and in pass rush. He blitzed on eight snaps.<\/p>\n

Kayin Lee also had a really nice day, which his interception certainly helped. He had tough tasks on Texas\u2019 receivers, including his former teammate Cam Coleman, but did a really nice job. His only weak point was as a tackler.<\/p>\n

The worst three grades being the back end of UT\u2019s secondary is interesting, though. Nickelback Qua Moss was the worst graded, then the safeties TJ Metcalf and Dejuan Lane.<\/p>\n

The snap counts are also fascinating. Arion Carter and Amare Campbell played every single snap at linebacker. Jeremiah Telander also played 37 snaps in his hybrid role, and Edwin Spillman got on the field for only 10 snaps. Jadon Perlotte continues to not be a factor in the rotation.<\/p>\n

On the defensive line, freshman JJ Finch played 20 snaps. That was more than double that of sophomores Isaiah Campbell and Ethan Utley combined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo via Tennessee Athletics Tennessee football hosted top-ranked Texas on Saturday afternoon, but couldn\u2019t pull out a win.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50134,50135,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-449383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-tennessee-football","tag-tennessee-vols","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}