Things are rarely as good as they seem, and they’re rarely as bad as they seem. That’s probably a wise statement for all Dawg fans to embrace this week following a less than ideal showing this past Saturday against the mighty Governors (lame name). I’m not feeling like Lane Meyer just yet…not ready to jump off a bridge or stick my head in the oven after two games, but I’d be dishonest if I said that performance didn’t leave something to be desired (at least on the offensive side of the ball). With that, let’s get to some post-game grades.  

Quarterback: C

• C’s get degrees…but they probably won’t get championships. When you look at Gunner’s stats for the game, they look pretty solid (26-34 for 227 yards, 5 rushes for 13 yards, no turnovers). It’s not like he threw 5 picks and fumbled 3 times while taking the Lord’s name in vain. We’ve all seen the feedback that he’s not seeing open receivers downfield, or he’s seeing them and too tentative to pull the trigger. Last week he used his legs to make several plays, this week…not as much (although he did escape a certain sack early in the game and turned it into a gain). I have no idea what to make of this game. I think Gunner is a talented guy and can make plays with his arm and his legs. Maybe some of it was our game plan. Maybe some of it was Gunner not seeing the same thing we see on the broadcast (if you were fortunate enough to have ESPN+ or watch via a shady YouTube stream like I did). Maybe he’s being overcoached and feels paralyzed to make a decision. Maybe it really is the way defenses are playing us. I really don’t know what it is. What I feel comfortable saying is Gunner was not making plays that several other QB’s in college football aren’t capable of making. That gets you a C for the week.     

Running Back: B

• You’re still my man Nate…but you’re killing me with the fumbles. I’ll choose to be positive and believe you got your one fumble for this year out of the way and this will not be an issue for the remaining games. There, I feel better already. Chauncey Bowens with a bit of a breakout game…11 for 56 yards and 2 TD’s, and showed some nice moves on a couple of runs. Ahhh yes, and Dwight Phillips (officially going to be calling him “Dwight Lightning” the remainder of his career) continued to look the part of an explosive SEC back…7 for 55 yards and the longest play of the day (23 yards). If we want to give him 10-12 touches a game, I won’t be upset. Maybe this could be a B+, but when accounting for the fumble and an average YPC of 4.8 on the day (no sack yardage to hurt the total) against an FCS team, B is where we’ll settle for the week.    

Offensive Line – C-

• Quick caveat…yes, OL is a tougher position unit to grade than the skill positions. I admit I don’t have any football credentials of note, and I don’t have the luxury of spending 12 hours breaking down every play from scrimmage on all of our OL players. Like many of you, I also watch the Brooks Austin recap and love watching him dissect the play of our OL. All that said, I thought our OL did not have a good day. I know we were without Greene and Gaston, and our right side of the line feels cursed right about now, but the results are what they are. I’m not saying we were bad every single play (there were some good moments), but we were not good on more than a few…and it was against FCS competition. Definitely some missed assignments in pass protection, not dominant in the run game, and can’t seem to impose our will in short yardage situations. If we were playing an elite defensive team and got these results, probably a higher grade. When you play Austin Peay, it’s a C- for the week.     

Receivers (WR’s + TE’s) – B-

• I really wanted to grade this as an “Incomplete” for this week. It would have been a copout, but I was making my peace with it. The good…I saw some nice effort on the blocking downfield (Delp and Humphreys continue to show up well here based on what I’ve seen) and the energy seems very good with this group. But when 80-90% of our throws travel 5 yards or less past the LOS, it’s really difficult to judge the group. The TE’s didn’t have any catches on the day (was there even a target?). There were about 184 receiving yards from non-RB’s, so it’s not like this group didn’t do anything Saturday…but a heavy majority of those yards were quick hitters around the line of scrimmage. If that’s what the defense was giving us, we were sure fine taking it and grinding out some yards. Liked the route Talyn Taylor ran and Stockton delivered in stride…nicest looking pass play of the day. Colbie Young played tough as hell. Would have liked to see more targets for Branch. Dillon Bell has been a non-factor through the first two games. There’s just not a lot to judge for this group in terms of playmaking with the approach we’ve taken. They’re doing what they’re being asked to do. Can’t give them an A grade when Dillon Bell caught one he should have let drop (then completely whiffed on a block the very next play), nobody broke a big one due to an elite individual effort, and Humphreys had the fumble on our side of the field. Hope to find out more about this group in Knoxville.

Defensive Line – A

• Definitely another overmatched opponent, but this group continues to deliver. The push and pressure are evident, they’re getting TFL’s and allowing our LB group to make plays. Elijah Griffin has made the stat sheet two weeks in a row and is playing as advertised. Good to see JJA playing up to his ranking after the injury last year. We know what we’ve got with Christen Miller and Gabe Harris (when he has the hand in the dirt), so this group continues to look like one of the bigger strengths of the team through two games. Run defense has been a brick wall. Gotta love the goal line stand and this group being a big reason why the Governors were not allowed into our endzone. I think we’re still not sure what our offense will look like when we open things up more, but I feel like our DL will be a big reason we shouldn’t be out of many games this year.  

Linebackers – A         

• These dudes are really good. I don’t know if we have a Roquan, Nakobe or Jalon…but top to bottom, we’ve got some serious talent and depth. CJ and Raylen were both outstanding and super productive on the day, leading the team in tackles at 7 apiece and getting some TFL’s on the afternoon. Chris Cole showed some elite speed to beat the LT and pick up a sack on third down. Justin Williams chipped in with 4 tackles. Quintavious Johnson had a nice game and was credited with half a TFL. Whatever we need to do to get these guys on the field as much as possible, I’m all in. If someone said we should play Justin Williams at Safety, I’d probably agree (just kidding around…sort of). The speed, intensity and production are all there.

Defensive Backs – B+

• We did get beat a couple of times in the secondary and this was not a good opponent, so won’t be giving out an A for the day…but all things considered, very solid. I’m still not sure on Aguero…thought he would be making a bigger impact at this point and he doesn’t seem to be super reliable in coverage. He had some moments last year where I thought he had made the leap, but not a lot of consistent production. KJ Bolden continues to be money and good on Ellis Robinson being alert and athletic enough to come up with the pick on a ball that bounced off a receiver. Good to get Everette back and get him some game reps before conference play. This group will surely get tested by the Vols next weekend…will be a great measuring stick to see where this group is after being relatively unchallenged the first two weeks.       

Special Teams – B

• No FG attempts for Woodring on the day, so not a lot to judge. No kickoffs were returned, which we’ll take all season. Thorpedo made his return to action and averaged 44 yards per punt, with a long of 54 and no returns. Branch had one punt return and one kick return, but no noise on either. Williams was flagged for a block in the back on the kick return, so that did not help the field position cause. Let’s move on.       

Coaching – C

• If we want to stick with the script that the coaches are keeping everything close to the vest against a bad opponent, that’s cool with me. I also subscribe to that line of thought and think we’ll see a different approach in Knoxville. That said…my eyes saw less FPE this week than our Marshall game. We were sitting on the goal line to end the first half and came away with 0 points in five tries. These super vanilla offensive gameplans are great when you open the game with 3 straight TD’s and are getting yards in chunks…it doesn’t look as smart when you go into the locker room up 14-3 against an FCS opponent. Our defense looked ready, willing and able…so good for the coaches on that side of the ball. Bottom line, we beat an FCS opponent 28-6. When you have an ENORMOUS talent advantage and that’s the final result, can’t give them more than a C for the final grade. If Kirby wanted some adversity and some things to coach up for this week’s game, then he’s a genius.    

ESPN – F

• There must be a million different options to broadcast a college football game in 2025. I don’t care if Georgia is playing a Catholic Middle School…I want to watch the game without issue. No, I don’t want to get a subscription to ESPN+ so I can watch one game on a streaming service. This is just one of many reasons why the “World Wide Leader” has fallen so far. I know how much better we are in 2025 compared to the 80’s when you could barely watch your favorite team play all season, but I’m still bitter and I refuse to play that game. So, whomever was kind enough to stream the game on your shady YouTube channel, I appreciate you.   

The jury is very much out on this team…at least on offense. I think our defense has done about as much as they can do and dominated lesser teams as they should have. On offense, I’m in wait and see mode. If we go to Knoxville and the offense doesn’t have a little more imagination, I’ll be a lot more concerned. If we get guys like Greene and Gaston back on the OL and Stockton is getting pressured too much, I’ll be a lot more concerned. I think most Dawg fans are in agreement that we’ve intentionally been keeping things VERY basic for the first two weeks, and we’re ready to show more against the Vols. For what it’s worth, I don’t think we know a whole lot more about Tennessee. They beat a Syracuse team that needed OT to beat UConn, and dispatched a completely overmatched ETSU (to be fair, we should have done that with Austin Peay). Looking forward to Rocky Top this weekend.

Go Dawgs!