Tennessee Football Stock Report: Vols survive scare against Florida

Tennessee football rebounded from its first loss of the season with an ugly 23-17 overtime win over Florida Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. The Vols’ offense struggled for the third straight game, but they did enough, coupled with a strong defensive performance, to win.

Here’s a look at the Tennessee football stock report after the loss to Florida.

More from RTI: Tennessee football starts as slight underdogs against Alabama

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Defensive back play

No position group on Tennessee’s team had a stronger performance than the defensive backs against Florida. At corner, Jermod McCoy was fantastic, while Rickey Gibson was solid and made a huge play on fourth down.

At safety, both Will Brooks and Christian Charles had really strong performances. Then, with Christian Harrison sidelined, Boo Carter had the best performance of his young career at STAR.

Tennessee’s secondary played great against a competent passing attack. Next week they need another attack against a strong Alabama passing attack.

Chris Brazzell

Chris Brazzell has been virtually non-existent for Tennessee since the season opener against Chattanooga. Now, no one had a great performance in the passing game, but Brazzell played well.

The Tulane transfer completed three passes for 49 yards, including an incredibly tough catch in traffic. He also pointed high and caught a high ball just outside the field. There was little good for Tennessee’s offense against Florida. Brazzell was one of them.

Stock ownership

Pass protection

Tennessee’s pass protection was terrible a week ago against Arkansas. Somehow it was just as bad at home against Florida.

The Vols’ offensive line held up passing plays three times and Nico Iamaleava was sacked three more times. In the second half, Tennessee finally moved the pocket on numerous passing plays. Against a pedestrian Florida pass rush, Tennessee’s offensive line couldn’t keep up.

Dylan Sampson

While Tennessee’s pass protection inventory remains low. Dylan Sampson’s stock remains high. He rushed for 112 yards and three touchdowns against Florida and now leads the SEC in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.

Perhaps what impressed Sampson most against the game was the way he held the ball so often. That was 27 carries and two more catches against Florida. He is Tennessee’s best offensive player and currently has a heavy workload.

Inventory decreased

Execute blocking

We’ve seen Tennessee’s offensive line look terrible in pass protection this season. However, we had never seen them look as bad blocking as they did against Florida.

Sampson only had to play a few holes all night, which made his performance all the more impressive. Florida also created negative plays in the run game and playing behind the sticks is obviously not a good place for Tennessee’s offensive line.

Left tackle Lance Heard was actually worse at run blocking than pass blocking, according to PFF. The same was true for Javontez Spraggins.

Nico Iamaleava

Nico Iamaleava obviously didn’t have a great game a week ago at Arkansas, but he didn’t turn the ball over and there were numerous issues around him and no easy plays were possible.

But against Florida, Iamaleava fumbled a turnover, forced a pass into double coverage and missed two open shots from deep in the second quarter. Yes, there were still offensive issues surrounding Iamaleava, but his issues and missed plays were much more obvious.