Tennessee football opened up its 2025 season in strong fashion Saturday afternoon, knocking off Syracuse 45-26 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The Vols jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and Syracuse never truly threatened as they coasted to a season opening victory. Each week, we’ll share how the Vols graded out according to Pro Football Focus grades.
Here’s how PFF works, the company grades each player on every play from a scale of negative two to two in 0.5 increments. Here’s how the company defines the benefits of their grading system.
“Taking every play into consideration allows for a larger sample size of data to tell the proper story rather than just a highlight reel of plays that we tend to remember, for better or worse. We also work to eliminate bias by not caring about the level of player who is being graded, so whether it’s the best tackle in the league missing a block or one of the worst, the same grade is given. Preconceived level of ability has no impact on the grading system. This style has worked well in unlocking undervalued gems through the years, while also not being swayed by player hype if it is undeserved.”
Each game players are graded on a scale from 1-100. 90-100 represents an elite grade, 85-89 represents an all-conference player, 70-84 is starter quality, 60-69 is backup quality and everything under 60 is replaceable.
With that, let’s see how Tennessee graded out against Syracuse.
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Offensive Grades (minimum 13 plays — 20% of offensive plays)
RB DeSean Bishop — 90.4 (24 plays)
QB Joey Aguilar — 83.0 (70 plays)
LT Lance Heard — 76.1 (70 plays)
RB Star Thomas — 76.1 (24 plays)
TE Miles Kitselman — 74.9 (62 plays)
WR Braylon Staley — 73.1 (60 plays)
RG Wendell Moe — 72.8 (70 plays)
RB Peyton Lewis — 70.3 (20 plays)
WR Chris Brazzell — 68.5 (48 plays)
RT Jesse Perry — 65.4 (70 plays)
C Sam Pendleton — 65.1 (67 plays)
LG Sham Umarov — 64.8 (70 plays)
WR Mike Matthews — 60.7 (55 plays)
TE Ethan Davis — 51.4 (40 plays)
It was a strong Tennessee debut for Joey Aguilar and the PFF grades matched up with the eye test. Aguilar was the Vols’ second highest graded offensive player and his passing grade was even higher than his overall grade.
Tennessee’s running back room projected to be one of the best position groups on the Vols’ team this season. They certainly looked that way in the debut with DeSean Bishop and Star Thomas landing two of the top four grades. The trio of those two and Peyton Lewis all played between 20-24 snaps.
I was a bit surprised that Tennessee’s offensive line grades weren’t a bit better across the board. They all graded out well but Tennessee seemed to dominate the line of scrimmage. I thought the PFF numbers might indicate that a bit more.
Lastly, on some snap counts. Travis Smith Jr and Jack Van Doreselar played seven snaps, William Satterwhite played three snaps, Daune Morris played two snaps and DaSaahn Brame played one snap.
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Defensive Grades (minimum 17 plays — 20% of defensive plays)
CB Ty Redmond — 75.6 (60 plays)
CB Colton Hood — 75.4 (86 plays)
STAR Jalen McMurray — 73.9 (52 plays)
LEO Josh Josephs — 72.7 (55 plays)
DE Tyree Weathersby — 71.7 (45 plays)
DE/DT Dominic Bailey — 70.0 (66 plays)
LEO Jordan Ross — 69.6 (24 plays)
DT Nathan Robinson — 69.5 (28 plays)
STAR Boo Carter — 67.8 (27 plays)
DT Jamal Wallace — 67.6 (22 plays)
S Edrees Farooq — 67.5 (49 plays)
LB Ben Bolton — 66.7 (27 plays)
S Kaleb Beasley — 66.3 (41 plays)
LB Arion Carter — 65.2 (47 plays)
LB Jeremiah Telander — 64.6 (57 plays)
LEO Caleb Herring — 61.8 (23 plays)
LB Edwin Spillman — 59.8 (41 plays)
DT Bryson Eason — 59.5 (61 plays)
S Andre Turrentine — 53.8 (90 plays)
CB Rickey Gibson — 50.4 (19 plays)
How about Ty Redmond? The three-star freshman was thrust into a major role after Rickey Gibson suffered an injury in the second quarter. He delivered as well as anyone could have expected. Colton Hood was fantastic too and his coverage grade was even better than Redmond. A bad run defense and tackling grade took Hood down a notch.
Ben Bolton grading out as Tennessee’s best linebacker was something I didn’t have on my bingo card ahead of the season opener. I didn’t think the Vols’ top backers played great but I did think they’d grade out a bit higher than they did.
Some snap count notes. Boo Carter played just over half the snaps Jalen McMurray played. Thought that checked out. Tennessee asked a ton out of Bryson Eason and Dominic Bailey with them totaling 61 and 66 plays respectively. Eason’s season-high in snaps was 40 a year ago. Bailey’s was 49.
Players who didn’t record enough snaps to qualify included William Wright (15), Jaedon Harmon (14), Tyre West (14) and Ethan Utley (13).
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