Tennessee Vols Statistical Rankings After Week One

First, the caveats, because ridding oneself of Lawyer Stink takes more than 15 months, apparently: This post is primarily for tracking purposes. If we don't record them now, these weekly numbers will disappear into the ether, and if I'm going to record them, I might as well post them. But the numbers can't mean much at this point. Some teams, like Tennessee, played what are currently believed to be decent teams. Some teams played Alabama. Some played Bowling Green. So relative numbers are skewey skewed skewed. Plus, it's only one game. Plus again, not all of this week's games have even been played. And even in the future, these are rankings, and the actual numbers resulting in those rankings mean more. But this is college football, and rankings matter, so we roll.

With that out of the way, here's the stuff. First up is the Stuff UT Did Well This Week.

We're #1 in something other than kickoff return yardage defense. Yay.

Seriously, though, you have to love being both at the top in throwing interceptions and at the top in getting them. That certainly contributed to the other top turnover categories, of course. And note that most of these things are things we didn't do so well last year, so there's a glimmer of hope that the improvement is real.

And now for the Tennessee players in the top 30. Last year, we finished the season with only Austin Johnson in the top 30. After week one of 2012, things have changed a bit.

Don't get too excited about all of those #5s because everybody who got an interception this week was #5. But do get excited about the fact that we have four players on that list. And woo for everyone else on this list, too. Please take off your shoes and stay awhile.

#OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

What did we rank poorly in this week? Tackles for Loss Allowed. Period. Which is nice. What is not so nice, though, is that it's Tackles for Loss Allowed. Again, don't put too much stock in it, but this is definitely something to watch. Maybe just getting the guys to run straight will fix that. Our run offense was significantly better. How much mo' better could it be if we eliminated tackles for loss?

THE BIG FAT MIDDLE

And here's the rest, just for tracking purposes.