Monitoring Tennessee's Improvement

by Joel Hollingsworth on Nov 4, 2010 7:20 AM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points

Continuing to refocus on the process of becoming a good program again. Here's a list of things Tennessee's doing well as of this week:

Categories In Which Tennessee Is In The Top Quarter
Category	Ranking
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	11th
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	21st

Unfortunately, that's two fewer things in the top quartile than last week. Everything dropped a bit, and Fumbles Lost and Fewest Penalties Per Game fell right out of the top 30.

How about individual players ranked in the top 50? Also down from four to two:

Player	Ranking	Stat
Marsalis Teague	40th	Passes Defended
Chad Cunningham	29th	Punting

Nick Reveiz fell out of the top 50 in total tackles, and Tauren Poole fell out in rushing.

Now on to what we'll euphemistically call Tennessee's greatest opportunities for improvement. After the jump.

Categories In Which Tennessee Is In The Bottom Quarter
Category	Ranking	Last Week	Better?
Red Zone Efficiency	118th	116th	N
Pass Sacks Allowed	118th	106th	N
Tackles for Loss Allowed	116th	102nd	N
Offense Third Down Efficiency	110th	115th	Y
Punt Returns	108th	104th	N
First Downs	108th	111th	Y
Offense Fourth Down Efficiency	108th	114th	Y
Kickoff Returns	102nd	101st	N
Pass Sacks	98th	106th	Y
Rushing Offense	96th	91st	N
Time of Possession	95th	104th	Y
Turnover Margin	94th	-	N
Scoring Offense	93rd	94th	Y
Scoring Defense	93rd	-	N
Turnovers Gained	91st	-	N
Total Offense	90th	95th	Y
Pass Defense	90th	95th	Y
Passing Efficiency	-	92nd	Y

So against a top 25 team in the categories in which we've been performing most poorly, the team improved in nine categories and got worse in nine categories. Which just bolsters my theory that for a young, rebuilding venture, squeezing the balloon in one spot just makes it expand in another.

But we'll get there. Hopefully, we'll see most things improve this week and throughout the month of November.

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