University of Tennessee Athletics
Four Downs: UK Weekend by the Numbers
November 17, 2014 | Football
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
Each week, UTSports.com takes a look at the numbers from the weekend past and the weekend ahead in Four Downs. This week: Barnett dominant, Barnett more dominant, and yards on yards on points on points.
First Down: 2 - Sacks By Derek Barnett
So Derek Barnett is pretty good at this whole football thing. With two sacks on Saturday against the Wildcats, Barnett increased his Tennessee freshman record for sacks in a season to nine. His performance this season ranks eighth on the UT single season chart, a list with some pretty impressive names ahead of him.
Barnett needs just half a sack to pass Anthony Sessions, who had 9.5 in 2000. One more sack would tie him with Ronnie McCartney's 10 in 1975 for sixth. All seven players ahead of him, Sessions, McCartney, Todd Kelly, Leonard Little, John Henderson, Jonathan Brown and Reggie White played in the NFL.
The freshman from Nashville ranks third in the SEC in sacks, trailing only Missouri's Shane Ray (13) and fellow freshman Myles Garrett of Texas A&M (11).
Barnett's nine sacks are the most by a Tennessee player since Sessions' 9.5 and Henderson's 12 in 2000. When combined with Curt Maggitt's eight sacks, the Barnett-Maggitt tandem has 17 sacks, the highest two-player total since Sessions and Henderson in 2000.
As a team, Tennessee's 29 sacks are the most by a Volunteer defense since 2005, when a UT defense led by Parys Haralson (8.5) and Jason Hall (7.0) had 33.
With seven tackles against Kentucky, his season total stands at 56, already the fourth-best season by a true freshman in program history. Jonathan Hefney's 65 is the next target in sight, with the all-time record of 86, set by Eric Berry in 2007 a possibility. His 5.6 tackles per game average would suggest that the all-time record is out of reach with two games to go, but Barnett has averaged 7.0 tackles over his last four games and a UT win in one of the final two would give him an extra opportunity in a bowl game.
The same could be said for the single-season sack record. Though he has averaged just under a sack per game over the course of the season, Barnett is averaging 2.0 sacks per game over the last four games, including three-sack performances against Ole Miss and South Carolina.
Second Down: 9 - Tennessee Tackles For Loss
The Volunteers got into the backfield early and often against the Wildcats, recording nine tackles for loss, the fifth game this season with nine or more TFLs. Tennessee has 78 tackles for loss on the year, the most since also recording 78 in 2010.
Leading the way for UT? Who else, but Derek Barnett. His 18 TFLs mark the seventh-best season in Vol history. He obliterated the previous Tennessee record for true freshmen (5.5 by Maggitt in 2011) and all freshmen (7.0 by Billy Ratliff in 1996 and Dale Jones in 1983 as redshirt freshmen).
Just like on the single-season sack list, the six players ahead of him on the TFL chart, Little, White, Henderson, Kelly, Shaun Ellis and Jesse Mahelona all ended up with careers in the NFL.
Barnett's 18 TFLs rank him first in the SEC, tied with Missouri's Shane Ray and is the best mark in a season at UT since Mahelona's 18.5 in 2004.
With Maggitt's 11 TFLs, UT has multiple players with double-digit tackles for loss for the first time since 2008 when Robert Ayers led the team with 15.5 and Nevin McKenzie had 10.
Barnett and Maggitt are just the second and third players since 2008 to have double-digit TFLs, joining Malik Jackson, who had 11 in 2010 and 2011. Tennessee had no players with 10 or more in 2009, 2012 and 2013.
Third Down: Quick Hits
4 - Consecutive pregame coin flips lost. After winning its first pregame coin toss in over a year against UTC, breaking an 11-game streak, the Vols lost their fourth-straight pregame coin toss.
When you factor in all coin tosses, pregame and overtime, Tennessee has lost 17 of its last 18. Beginning with the coin toss prior to overtime against Georgia last season, Tennessee lost seven straight total coin tosses to close 2013 and the first five of 2014 before winning the flip against Chattanooga. Since then, it's been back to the usual, losing the last five total, including the OT coin flip at South Carolina.
345 - Joshua Dobbs total yards. Though his stats weren't as eye-popping as his record-setting performance against South Carolina, Dobbs still accounted for four touchdowns and was three passing yards away from the first back-to-back 300-yard games by a UT QB since Tyler Bray had three straight 300-yard games in 2012 against South Carolina (368), Troy (530) and Missouri (404).
1,079 - Total offensive yards for Dobbs over his three games at QB with 11 touchdowns. Dobbs is 61-of-99 for 790 yards with seven touchdowns through the air and has run 53 times for 289 yards and four TDs.
2 - Vol Pearson touchdown catches (21 and 16 yards), the third Vol wide receiver to have a multi-TD game in 2014, but the first to do so against an SEC opponent. Marquez North had two TDs against Arkansas State and Johnathon Johnson pulled in two against Chattanooga.
5 - A.J. Johnson tackles, pushing his season total to 101. With the mark, Johnson became the first Vol since Andy Spiva (1974-76) with three consecutive 100-tackle seasons.
10.1 - Tackles per game for Johnson, best in the SEC. Johnson is the only league defender to average double-digit tackles. The senior ranks second in total tackles (101) to Kentucky's Josh Forrest (102), who has played one more game.
3 - Aaron Medley field goals. The freshman ranks second in the SEC in field goals made with 16 and field goal percentage at 72.7 percent (16-22). Medley trails only Kentucky's Austin McGinnis in both categories (17-23, 73.9%).
39 - Penalties in 2014 for Tennessee, fewest in the SEC. UT's 294 penalty yards are also tops in the conference.
50 - Tennessee points, the most in a game since a 52-20 win over Western Kentucky in 2013 and the most in an SEC game since a 52-14 victory over Ole Miss in 2010.
95 - Points scored by the Vols over the last two SEC games, the most in back-to-back SEC games since 2003, when Tennessee put up 107 points in wins over Mississippi State (59-21) on Nov. 15 and Vanderbilt (48-0) on Nov. 22.
511 - Yards of total offense. After a 645-yard game against USC, the Vols' recorded back-to-back 500-plus total offensive yard games against SEC opponents for the first time since 2000, when Tennessee had 502 offensive yards against Arkansas on Nov. 11 and 590 offensive yards against Kentucky on Nov. 18.
52 - Yards covered on Jason Croom's TD catch in the third quarter, the longest reception of his career and the longest pass of Dobbs'. The previous long play for both players was a 43-yard pass from Dobbs to Croom in the first quarter of last season's 27-14 win over Kentucky.
257 - Consecutive games with a point scored by UT, dating back to Sept. 17, 1994. It marks the fourth-longest active streak in FBS, the 10th-longest in history.
1984 - The last time Kentucky won in Neyland Stadium.
Fourth Down: A Look Ahead
1971 - The last time Tennessee played a team other than Vanderbilt or Kentucky on Senior Day at Neyland Stadium when the Vols hosted Penn State on Dec. 4.
1944 - The last time UT faced a team other than the Commodores or Wildcats in the final SEC game at Neyland Stadium when Tennessee hosted Alabama on Oct. 21. 1944 was also the last time UT did not play Vanderbilt.
In years that Tennessee has faced both Kentucky and Vanderbilt during a regular season, the Vols have closed the home slate against an SEC foe other than one of those two programs only twice before since the league was founded in 1933. Tennessee closed the home schedule against LSU in 1934 and Auburn in 1939.
2 - Previous meetings with Missouri, the fewest times Tennessee has faced a current SEC foe, excluding Texas A&M, who UT has yet to face since the aggies joined the conference. The Tigers are bookended on the schedule between UT's two most frequent opponents Kentucky (110 meetings) and Vanderbilt (107).
9 - All-time wins on Nov. 22, including seven straight. Tennessee's last loss on the date was a 6-2 defeat to Kentucky in 1958. The Vols will look to win on the date for the first time since 2008 when Missouri comes to town and it's once again Football Time in Tennessee!
