Tennessee 20, Texas A&M 13 | Advanced Stats Review

 Five Factor Box Score

Ok, so after the South Carolina game I promised to stop complaining about the PPO of this offense and accept that they don't have the output of 2022's offense. But 1.63 points per opportunity on eight scoring opportunities is abysmal. That's a wet fart in a white tuxedo. I actually appreciated seeing a defensive slugfest in this era of college football that heavily favors offense. But had UT not found a way to pull this game out, the PPO at a pace of less than half a field goal per opportunity would have been even more glaring than it is. 

Nice to see the Vols with the higher havoc rate in a game where defense was king. Also, asterisks next to A&M's starting field position because something's obviously wrong with the data there. 

Line Stats

One of my biggest criticisms after the Florida game was how the RBs were not doing anything once they got to the second level and beyond. They have certainly changed that trend since and all three backs are showing dynamic running after breaking into open grass. As UT's reputation as a running offense grows, it will become more important for the Tennessee running backs to continue producing, and it will become important for the Vols to find some kind of passing game to keep pressure off of the backs. 

Player Usage & Predicted Points Added

I'll start by saying there is some weirdness in the play-by-play data from collegefootballdata.com that doesn't seem to add up. That's not unusual, by my understanding, CFBD grabs their numbers from ESPN, who has been notoriously inconsistent with their stats this season especially. But we'll go ahead and assume what we see above is mostly accurate. You can see how awful both offenses were on Saturday by the total lack of PPA in the game. Interesting that despite Tennessee's dominant ground performance, only Jaylen Wright was in the positive in PPA, and just barely at that. Joe Milton, despite having less than half of the yardage that Max Johnson had, outperformed the TAMU QB in PPA. That's likely due to UT's constant harassment of Johnson throughout the game.