Tennessee 41, South Carolina 20 Advanced Stats Review

 Five Factor Box Score

In all of Joe Milton's starts at Tennessee, only two games have featured an offensive success rate over 50%: the season opener against UVa, and Saturday night against the Gamecocks. In the heart of the 2022 season against Florida, LSU, and Alabama, the Vols offense had success rates of 57%, 53%, and 57%. With a stretch of Texas A&M, Alabama, and Kentucky on the horizon, this would be a great time for the UT offense to go on a similar run. 

For the fifth straight game, explosiveness did not predict the winner of this game. I'm also going to stop giving out about the PPO numbers being lower than I'd like them and just accept that this offense operates differently than the '22 offense did. And that's ok, especially since the defense is playing at such a higher level (and their havoc level continues to show that). 

Line Stats

What a difference having Cooper Mays back on the field made for Tennessee's offensive line. Mays' ability to get the OLine set and into the right schemes and protections seemed to take some burden off of Joe Milton and the Vols ended the day with three RBs averaging over 5 yards/carry. On the flip side, South Carolina's Mario Anderson averaged 10.1 yards/carry, but that was bolstered by one 75-yard run--meaning Anderson averaged just 2.8 yards on each of his other nine carries. Trailing by at least two scores throughout the second half meant the Gamecocks had to abandon the run early, while Tennessee continued to pound at the USC line all night. 

Player Usage & Predicted Points Added

Since the QB is, in nearly all cases, going to be the player with the highest usage in any game, you'd also want the QB to add the most predicted points over the course of the game. And that's very often the case. But not for Spencer Rattler on Saturday night. Despite being 73% of the Gamecocks' offense, Rattler contributed just 0.6 PPA, including a blistering negative 6.3 PPA in the second quarter. That's got to be one of the worst "Super Bowl" performances we've seen in some time, no?