#1 in the SEC with 16 forced turnovers and 9 INTs

[volsarelife1]

 

[So.ProVOL]

Boom!

 

[zaqhhh]

I find this shocking to believe actually. I mean Kudos but it doesn't feel like it

 

[General Jack]

I thought our defense was turrible??

 

[MiramarVol]

All I hear is fahr the DC. Our defense sucks. Martinez was bad his 1st time around etc. Somebody needs to eat 50 boiled eggs without water then try and talk about the defense.

 

[Volosaurus rex]

That is very good news, but they are a lot harder to come by now, particularly with respect to interceptions. Consider the following record-setting stats compiled by our 1970 lads:

"And no team in college football history has generated takeaways the way the 1970 Tennessee Volunteers did. That team still holds the NCAA single-season record for takeaways — 57 — and that doesn’t include the Sugar Bowl, during which the Vols forced eight more turnovers in a 34-13 rout of Air Force. (The NCAA didn’t count bowl stats as part of a season total until 2002.)

Forty interceptions. Twenty-five fumble recoveries. Sixty-five takeaways."

[By comparison], Oklahoma State recorded 44 takeaways in 2011, which is the most in the past 10 years, and Miami forced 45 turnovers in 2001, which is the most this century." 57(!) takeaways? Tennessee’s NCAA record gives Oklahoma (and everybody else) something to shoot for

 

[CNCVol88]

I find this shocking to believe actually. I mean Kudos but it doesn't feel like it

I mean look at how our Defense has performed outside of Alabama where Bryce Young did Bryce Young things and Florida, Where Anthony Richardson gave us his fastest fast ball he could give and played out of his mind.

Pitt has less than 300 yards of total offense and 2 turnovers. An INT and a fumble
Florida, even with them giving us the best performance of the year for them still had 2 Turnovers. An INT and a fumble
LSU had 350 total offense (We had 502) and 2 Turnovers. An INT and a Fumble
Alabama had a Fumble
Kentucky had 3 INTs

The cupcakes had 6 turnovers among them.

Our Defensive stats are heavily skewed by a few things: A crazy game against Florida, a shootout with Alabama, Playing Walk ons against UTM in the second half (and talented FCS Players > Walk ons) We are 82nd in total Defense but when you break it down in a Yard Per Play we jump to 44th. Our Defense has played 605 plays this season. That's 2nd in the SEC. The only Defense that has played more plays is Ole Miss. The Narrative that our defense is porous is greatly exaggerated.

 

[TennesseeTarheel]

I think we should enjoy the anonymity while we can.

 

[bpalmer28]

Can’t be true. Banks and Martinez suck

 

[Oldblood]

Also tied for 11th nationally and tops in SEC in turnover + / - at plus 8 for the year. If we are ahead in turnovers vs UGA I REALLY like our chances.

 

[A.J.]

Proud of those boys. They’ve kept working hard all this time hearing how great the offense is and how bad they are, and have showed alot of improvement and came up big when needed. Hopefully they can build on these stats this weekend and lower the boom on some Bulldogs and have some more highlight moments like last week. Can’t wait for Saturday!

 

[WoodsmanVol]

That is very good news, but they are a lot harder to come by now, particularly with respect to interceptions. Consider the following record-setting stats compiled by our 1970 lads:
"And no team in college football history has generated takeaways the way the 1970 Tennessee Volunteers did. That team still holds the NCAA single-season record for takeaways — 57 — and that doesn’t include the Sugar Bowl, during which the Vols forced eight more turnovers in a 34-13 rout of Air Force. (The NCAA didn’t count bowl stats as part of a season total until 2002.)
Forty interceptions. Twenty-five fumble recoveries. Sixty-five takeaways."
[By comparison], Oklahoma State recorded 44 takeaways in 2011, which is the most in the past 10 years, and Miami forced 45 turnovers in 2001, which is the most this century." 57(!) takeaways? Tennessee’s NCAA record gives Oklahoma (and everybody else) something to shoot for

I remember the Air Force coach saying that when you throw the ball, the Vols have as much of a chance to catch it as your own receivers.

 

[Volosaurus rex]

I remember the Air Force coach saying that when you throw the ball, the Vols have as much of a chance to catch it as your own receivers.

And, if that dog had not gotten on to the field, that game may well have been a bowl-beatdown for the ages. We were clicking on all cylinders and up 21-0 before that.

 

[FlyFishnVol]

View attachment 509065

To be honest, I would not have guessed that. That is AWESOME!! GBO!

 

[CNCVol88]

I mean look at how our Defense has performed outside of Alabama where Bryce Young did Bryce Young things and Florida, Where Anthony Richardson gave us his fastest fast ball he could give and played out of his mind.

Pitt has less than 300 yards of total offense and 2 turnovers. An INT and a fumble
Florida, even with them giving us the best performance of the year for them still had 2 Turnovers. An INT and a fumble
LSU had 350 total offense (We had 502) and 2 Turnovers. An INT and a Fumble
Alabama had a Fumble
Kentucky had 3 INTs

The cupcakes had 6 turnovers among them.

Our Defensive stats are heavily skewed by a few things: A crazy game against Florida, a shootout with Alabama, Playing Walk ons against UTM in the second half (and talented FCS Players > Walk ons) We are 82nd in total Defense but when you break it down in a Yard Per Play we jump to 44th. Our Defense has played 605 plays this season. That's 2nd in the SEC. The only Defense that has played more plays is Ole Miss. The Narrative that our defense is porous is greatly exaggerated.

To add to this post, 2 of those turnovers have been through special Teams (Kickoff recovery against LSU and Punt recovery against Bama) but the rest of it is all defense.

 

[Orange931]

Garbage time yards from kicking most peoples a**es are what has our defensive ranking down.

 

[CNCVol88]

Garbage time yards from kicking most peoples a**es are what has our defensive ranking down.

The bama and Florida games are the biggest outliers statistically speaking.

 

[VolFreakJosh]

People want to jump all over the defense just because we give up a lot of yards.

The defense has made plays at the right time that’s resulted in being undefeated.

 

[volsarelife1]

To be honest, I would not have guessed that. That is AWESOME!! GBO!

I wouldn't have ever guessed this either honestly

 

[ButchPlz]

People want to jump all over the defense just because we give up a lot of yards.

The defense has made plays at the right time that’s resulted in being undefeated.

Yards don't win games.

 

[FlyFishnVol]

Yards don't win games.

Heupel has brought the best statistical number, "Wins vs. Losses," to the forefront. Who cares how you get it?

I can guarantee this, Bama, LSU, and KY would love to have the W vs. all those old-fashioned ideas of statistics.

 

[CNCVol88]

People want to jump all over the defense just because we give up a lot of yards.

The defense has made plays at the right time that’s resulted in being undefeated.

Outside of alabama and Florida (and some garbage time yardage with LSU And UTM) Tennessee has held their opponents to less than 300 yards offense. LSU had right at 300 passing yards and 62 of those came in garbage time on their last drive that ended with...an interception. UTM had 156 yards of total offense In the first half and most of those came off their scripted plays while the defense was still asleep.

This defense isn't as bad as the paper suggests.

 

[zaqhhh]

I mean look at how our Defense has performed outside of Alabama where Bryce Young did Bryce Young things and Florida, Where Anthony Richardson gave us his fastest fast ball he could give and played out of his mind.

Pitt has less than 300 yards of total offense and 2 turnovers. An INT and a fumble
Florida, even with them giving us the best performance of the year for them still had 2 Turnovers. An INT and a fumble
LSU had 350 total offense (We had 502) and 2 Turnovers. An INT and a Fumble
Alabama had a Fumble
Kentucky had 3 INTs

The cupcakes had 6 turnovers among them.

Our Defensive stats are heavily skewed by a few things: A crazy game against Florida, a shootout with Alabama, Playing Walk ons against UTM in the second half (and talented FCS Players > Walk ons) We are 82nd in total Defense but when you break it down in a Yard Per Play we jump to 44th. Our Defense has played 605 plays this season. That's 2nd in the SEC. The only Defense that has played more plays is Ole Miss. The Narrative that our defense is porous is greatly exaggerated.

These are all great to point out and I absolutely agree that due to our Offense, our Defense is made to look worse than it actually is. It is top 40 now in yards per play per ESPN.

But we do need to acknowledge that the pass defense has been acrid save the UK game where we saw a marked, impressive performance throughout.

This defense is much better than many of us (including I) thought especially from a metrics perspective but we are still awful against the pass even on a per play basis.

So we have a very odd defense where our Rushing Defense is top 10 per play and our Passing Defense is bottom 25 per play. That said, with all of that taken into account we seem to be becoming more opportunistic which is perhaps the tipping point for being championship caliber.

 

[Volosaurus rex]

These are all great to point out and I absolutely agree that due to our Offense, our Defense is made to look worse than it actually is. It is top 40 now in yards per play per ESPN.

But we do need to acknowledge that the pass defense has been acrid save the UK game where we saw a marked, impressive performance throughout.

This defense is much better than many of us (including I) thought especially from a metrics perspective but we are still awful against the pass even on a per play basis.

So we have a very odd defense where our Rushing Defense is top 10 per play and our Passing Defense is bottom 25 per play. That said, with all of that taken into account we seem to be becoming more opportunistic which is perhaps the tipping point for being championship caliber.

Can you provide a link to corroborate the assertion that "our Passing Defense is bottom 25 per play?" If you want to talk about pass efficiency defense, we're actually 40th, right behind Clemson. NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com If you're talking about passes intercepted, we're tied for 22nd with a gazillion other teams. NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com It's only when you take into consideration passing yardage allowed that we are near the bottom and, as everyone has observed, that is in large measure due to the fact that nobody has had to defend more passes (349) than Tennessee. NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

Ans I believe that most of us will agree that the latter stat is more than offset by the fact that we lead the nation in scoring (49.4 ppg), total offense (553.0 ypg) and are second in passing offense (353.4 ypg).

See NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com and
NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com

 

[CNCVol88]

These are all great to point out and I absolutely agree that due to our Offense, our Defense is made to look worse than it actually is. It is top 40 now in yards per play per ESPN.

But we do need to acknowledge that the pass defense has been acrid save the UK game where we saw a marked, impressive performance throughout.

This defense is much better than many of us (including I) thought especially from a metrics perspective but we are still awful against the pass even on a per play basis.

So we have a very odd defense where our Rushing Defense is top 10 per play and our Passing Defense is bottom 25 per play. That said, with all of that taken into account we seem to be becoming more opportunistic which is perhaps the tipping point for being championship caliber.

We don't have a bottom 25 per play Passing Defense. We have had 349 balls thrown our way. That is more than ANY FBS school. Of those 217 have been completed. That's about 62% completion. Not good, but not effing awful either. Yards Per Attempt is 6.89 which would put us 54th in the nation and if you only count yards per completion (11.09) that's 39th in the nation. Rushing we are top 10 in yards per rush.