Tennessee Football: 7 Players Who Have Surprised Us in 2015
Surprises come in good and bad packages, and though it goes without saying that Tennessee's football season has been a disappointment in the early stages, there have been unexpected performances from several players.
From the baffling lack of production in the passing game to some positive flashes in special teams and on the back end of the defense, some Volunteers are separating themselves from others on the depth chart. Then, there are some who are relied upon to produce who haven't lived up to standards.
Unfortunately for the Vols, there are more of the latter thus far. But the biggest frustration so far for UT fans lies in the coaching staff.
Head coach Butch Jones has made his fair share of puzzling calls, including time mismanagement, a misuse of the chart that tells when a team should go for two, timeout blunders and conservative play-calling.
Offensive coordinator Mike DeBord and defensive coordinator John Jancek shouldn't go without scrutiny at this early juncture, either.
Even so, execution is at the very least as important as coaching, and the Vols have struggled everywhere but at running back, where Jalen Hurd is proving to be a budding star.
This is a team with the talent to be 4-0 but sits at 2-2 thanks to blowing a 17-point lead against Oklahoma and a 13-point lead over Florida.
The Vols have to fix an awful lot to turn around the psyche and turn around the season, but there's a lot of football left to play. Let's look at some individual (good, bad and ugly) surprises so far in 2015.
Good: Trevor Daniel, Punter
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The unsung hero of the entire team so far is a player who doesn't even have a scholarship.
Redshirt sophomore walk-on punter Trevor Daniel of Dickson, Tennessee, wasn't even a name on most Vols fans' radars at the beginning of the year. In the race to be UT's starting punter, most would have picked him third behind Maryland transfer Nathan Renfro and former U.S. Army All-American freshman Tommy Townsend.
Instead, Daniel is second in the SEC and fifth nationally in punting average, booming missiles at a 48.6-yard average over 22 punts.
Not only is Daniel consistent, he's a field-flipping weapon who has become extremely dependable. You'd think his last name was Colquitt. Coach Jones said this week, according to GoVols247's Ryan Callahan:
"You want a story to write about, write about Trevor Daniel, a walk-on comes into this football program and continues…we talk about getting better, and he defines that. He gets better each and every day. He has great confidence right now. He's the reason why we're having some success on our punt team, and he's a direct correlation to it.
His op times, he's been consistently at about 1.85, 1.9 (seconds), which is outstanding. He's had great kick placement. And you're right: He walks into a pressure, stressful situation in the Florida game and does a great job of getting rid of the football and kick placement, as well.
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The past two seasons, UT has turned around a putrid punting game thanks in part to coach Mark Elder's work with that unit. From Michael Palardy to Matt Darr (who is now starting for the Miami Dolphins as an NFL rookie), UT is beginning to produce quality punters.
Daniel is the next on that list, and fortunately for the Vols, he's got this year and two more to boom punts in Knoxville.
Bad: Derek Barnett, Defensive End
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It's not that Derek Barnett is having a bad season—he's second on the Vols with 22 tackles—but he isn't the havoc-wreaking force yet that he was a season ago.
This is a player who should have been an All-American as a freshman and did the work in the offseason to work on his physique and his skill set to get better, and it just hasn't translated into big numbers yet.
He has just one sack so far.
Barnett didn't really come on until after a few games a season ago, and nobody is worried about him this year. Again, he's playing well, but UT's pass rush isn't what it was a season ago, and Barnett is being neutralized more than he's dominating.
Perhaps a big reason for that is the fact that senior fellow bookend Curt Maggitt is lost for the season with a hip injury. With him out, opposing offensive lines can focus more attention on Barnett.
He's still making his presence known at times, but after consistently outperforming Texas A&M's Myles Garrett a season ago, Garrett easily has the upper hand this season. Garrett has turned into a household name, while Barnett is just another quality defensive end who puts up quiet numbers.
The Vols need Barnett to be the terror he was in 2014; a guy offensive tackles struggle with every single play. That light will probably flick on soon, but it hasn't yet. For instance, in a Florida game with the Gators breaking in a new offensive line, he should have thrived. Instead, he had three tackles and no sacks.
For Tennessee, the best possible thing would be for freshmen Kahlil McKenzie and Shy Tuttle to start rounding into shape so some of that attention goes on them. If that happens, Barnett may be able to pin his ears back and go.
He's not stuck in the sand, but he is off to a slower start than expected.
Good: Todd Kelly Jr., Safety
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Todd Kelly Jr.'s upside has always been extremely high.
After an offseason where he bulked up considerably, there may have been some concern that he'd outgrown the safety position and may be better-suited on the second level at linebacker.
It didn't take long for the 5'11", 208-pound sophomore legacy to prove that was ludicrous.
After missing the first half of the season opener against Bowling Green due to illness, he was inserted into the game after the weather delay and immediately helped solidify a shaky secondary. Then, he went out against Oklahoma and snagged a pair of interceptions.
"TK has great instincts,” Butch Jones told the Daily Times' Austin Bornheim. "He understands the defense, understands what we are trying to accomplish. He just brings a comfort level and is a good football player. He is always around the football. His football instincts kick in."
With senior LaDarrell McNeil out for the first couple of games following a neck injury, Kelly slipped into the starting lineup and has become the second-best player in the secondary behind Cameron Sutton.
So far, he has 20 tackles (third on the team) and is tied with McNeil as the only Vols to have an interception thus far. They each have two.
The Vols have some serious consistency issues on the back end of the defense that they must resolve immediately. Kelly has to be a big piece of that puzzle, and Tennessee has to keep him on the field regardless whenever it can.
He can keep plays like Antonio Callaway's 63-yard game-winning touchdown on 4th-and-14 from happening.
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Bad: Joshua Dobbs, Quarterback
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This may be a bit of a controversial pick, but junior quarterback Joshua Dobbs hasn't lived up to his immense expectations so far in the early going.
Nobody here is suggesting there should be an open battle to be Tennessee's signal-caller with freshman Quinten Dormady. After all, Dobbs absolutely played his heart out in a loss to Florida, looking like the best athlete on the field in running situation after running situation.
But a quarterback has to move the ball through the air, and the Vols must pass the football better moving forward than they have.
If they don't, it's going to be a long season.
Can Dobbs throw downfield and O-coordinator Mike DeBord is just too timid to do it? Or, has Dobbs given the coaching staff reason to believe he can't consistently complete passes vertically? That's the million-dollar question.
Following a Florida game where just two wide receivers caught a pass and UT generated nothing downfield and really didn't try to, the "throw game" was a big topic of discussion in press conferences this week, as it should be.
"We want to be able to throw the ball more down the field," Coach Jones told the Tennessean's Matt Slovin. "That's really a big part of us offensively. We'll continue to work on our throw game."
Dobbs has still yet to beat an opponent of any real consequence in his career. Against Oklahoma, he finished 13-of-31 passing for 125 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He was 10-of-17 for 83 yards against Florida. That won't cut it.
The Vols should love what Dobbs is able to do generating rushing yards, but he has to keep defenses honest with his arm. He's still a work in progress, but for the Vols to have any success this year, he must get better quickly.
Good: Coleman Thomas, Offensive Lineman
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Tennessee's offensive line is still struggling, and there are still holes, such as the evident one when coaches pulled right tackle Brett Kendrick after he was bull-rushed twice against Florida.
When that happened, Jones turned to his security blanket.
That would be versatile sophomore Coleman Thomas, whom he slid over from center to right tackle and inserted senior Mack Crowder into the middle of the line. Things didn't get completely better when he did that, but it temporarily neutralized the worry.
The 6'5", 301-pound lineman from Max Meadows, Virginia, can pretty much play anywhere along the offensive front. However, Thomas is a likely NFL center down the road, and he has really strengthened that position in beating out Crowder.
That's where he played in high school, and according to Jones (via the Chattanooga Times Free Press' Patrick Brown), that's where his best position is:
"Center is his natural position. His athletic ability of being able to pull and get out on the edge, and whether it was blocking a corner or a linebacker, he had the point-of-attack block for two of our touchdowns. He was directly responsible. I thought he managed the game in terms of calling out the fronts and getting us in the right blocking schemes.
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Whether he gets to stay there or not moving forward is unclear at this time. Tennessee has some options at tackle, but Thomas may be the best one if Kendrick continues to struggle.
Will that make Thomas less of a force on the front? He struggled on the exterior a season ago, but he has thrived inside this year. The coaches need to put him where he can make the biggest impact right now.
Bad: Von Pearson, Wide Receiver
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You can pretty much substitute senior Von Pearson with junior Marquez North, and the question remains: Where are they?
The only real reason why Pearson gets the nod over North is because North is quite obviously injured. He suffered a knee injury in the preseason and hasn't been the same since. Then, when Dobbs hung him out to dry a bit over the middle against Florida, he got his bell rung and never returned.
So, North has an excuse. Pearson has just flat-out struggled.
This is a player who was supposed to thrive this season, and he has just three catches for 57 yards and no touchdowns. And 45 of those came on one pass play.
The 6'0", 183-pound senior may be suffering some ill effects of all the time he missed participating in team drills and other sessions this offseason when he was suspended indefinitely pending a sexual assault investigation where he wound up not being charged.
While it would be a little more understandable for North to be struggling in the offense since he's a bit more of a downfield threat, Pearson fits UT's horizontal passing attack to perfection. He should be getting the ball in space and making things happen with his elite wheels.
Whether Dobbs just can't get him the ball or Pearson is having a tough time getting separation depends on the game. It's been a little bit of both.
But Pearson was supposed to be a major weapon for this team, and he just isn't. That has to change.
Good: Preston Williams, Wide Receiver
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Freshman wide receiver Preston Williams gets the nod for the final spot on this list, narrowly beating out senior defensive tackle Owen Williams because of his ability to shine in such a struggling position.
There's no denying the Vols' terrible receiver play so far (see Slide 6). But the freshman from Lovejoy High School in Hampton, Georgia, has been the only real viable downfield threat for Tennessee so far.
He only has three catches for 98 yards, and they all came against Western Carolina, but two of those went for touchdowns. The Vols have tried to find him deep in two other games, too. So, it's something he has proven he can do, and that may be his niche this year.
At 6'4", 209 pounds, Williams is a physical freak. He's fast and lean and super athletic. He can go up and get balls with the best defensive backs. The best news for UT is he's still a work in progress.
A significant knee injury suffered his senior year sidelined him until a little ways into fall camp. Then, the NCAA Clearinghouse flagged his ACT score, forcing him to retake it. He made a passing grade and was declared eligible to play the week before the Bowling Green game.
It's a testament to how good of an athlete he is that he traveled to Nashville with the team.
This is a kid who it wasn't even clear whether he'd play this season recovering from the knee injury. Now, coaches are looking for ways to get him the football, and he has joined fellow freshman Jauan Jennings as pass-catchers with extremely bright futures.
For an offense desperate to generate anything more than 15 yards downfield, he should be a big part of this game plan moving forward.
All stats gathered from UTSports.com unless otherwise noted. All recruiting information gathered from 247Sports unless otherwise noted. All quotes gathered firsthand unless otherwise noted.
Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee lead writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.
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