Tennessee Football: Vols lose season opener to West Virginia

The Tennessee Volunteers lost their season opener against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday by the score of 40-14.

The Tennessee Volunteers was looking to start their year out on a good note with a win against No. 17 ranked West Virginia, but their hopes of an upset were diminished at the hands of Will Grier.

The young Volunteers team was able to hang around with the WVU offense for a little while but eventually, Grier, a Heisman hopeful, torched the Volunteers young secondary to give the Mountaineers a 40-14 win.

Game Recap

The Volunteers first drive was less than ideal. The first play of the game started out with Jarrett Guarantano getting hit as he was throwing the ball, as a WVU defender ran right by Brandon Kennedy. After punting the ball away,  West Virginia was able to get three quick points on the board.

After another bad drive from the Volunteers, West Virginia increased their lead to 10 points on a 59-yard pass from Grier to T.J. Simmons.

The Volunteers offense was finally able to work out their pregame jitters in the 2nd quarter. The Volunteers got the ball to start the 2nd quarter. After a 17 play drive, Tennessee QB Guarantano was able to find JUCO transfer Dominick Wood-Anderson in the end zone to give the Volunteers their first touchdown of the year.

The entire drive for the Volunteers was 17 plays for 78 yards, taking 8:47 off of the clock.

West Virginia was able to drive down the field and get a field goal to increase their lead to 13-7 heading into halftime.

After more than a 90-minute lightning delay during halftime, the 2nd half got underway.

It didn’t take long for West Virginia to score again, as Grier connected with David Sills V on a 33-yard pass to put the Mountaineers up 20-7. Grier connected with Gary Jennings Jr. on their next drive on a 28-yard pass.

The Volunteers cut the lead to 13 points when Tim Jordan ran it in from four yards out, but that was all they could get.

Grier was able to connect with Kennedy McKoy and Sills V again, giving the Mountaineers a 40-14 win.

Grier helped his Heisman chances in this game. He finished 25-34 passing with a career-best 429 yards and five touchdowns. He connected with Sills V seven times for 140 yards and two touchdowns.

As for the Volunteers, Guarantano finished 19-25 passing with 172 yards and one touchdown. Marquez Callaway was his favorite target, as the two connected seven times for 85 yards. Guarantano connected with a total of nine different receivers during the game. Jordan showed out for the Volunteers in this game. After Ty Chandler went down with an injury early in the game, Jordan stepped up. Jordan finished with 20 carries for 118 yards, including a rushing touchdown.

Defensively for Tennessee, Kirkland led the Volunteers with 10 tackles. Nigel Warrior finished the day with a total of eight tackles, while Shy Tuttle, Micah Abernathy, Trevon Flowers, and Daniel Bituli all finished with five tackles.

Thoughts on the Game

There are a bunch of negatives and a few positives you can take away from this game. Let’s go ahead and knock the negatives out of the way.

The offensive line struggled. I personally thought the Volunteers were going to be able to run the ball all day on West Virginia and I was wrong. They started off pretty bad but settled down once the game got going. The Volunteers had to switch out offensive lineman early to see who was the best fit. Tennessee will have a chance to see who is the best fit these next two weeks as they have games against ETSU and UTEP.

Another weak link was the Volunteers secondary. They looked slow all day long compared to the West Virginia wide receivers. Sills tore the Volunteers up all day long. Granted, the Volunteers might not face a better wide receiver all year long, but the secondary still has to do better.

One thing I personally though hurt the Volunteers was the lightning delay. It seemed to really hurt the Volunteers momentum.

Some positives you can take away from this game come from the offensive side of the ball. I personally thought Guarantano did a really good job Saturday. He made some really good throws during the game and looked excellent on the short throws. He took some hits throughout the game, but still got up and responded. I would like to see the Volunteers take more shots downfield with him these next two weeks to see how he responds to throws down the field.

Jordan also looked very impressive for the Volunteers. He ran downfield all game, rushing for a total of 118 yards. If Chandler is out for a little, Jordan will have the chance to shine and make a name for himself.

Up Next

The Tennessee Volunteers will have their first home game of the year next Saturday, as ETSU heads down the road to Neyland Stadium. Kickoff will be at 3:00 PM Central/4:00 PM Eastern. The game will be broadcasted on the SEC Network.