Sep 6, 2025; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Volunteers linebacker Jeremiah Telander (22) and linebacker Arion Carter (7) react to a play against the East Tennessee State Buccaneers during the second half at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-Imagn Images Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

Good, Bad, and Ugly From Tennessee Football's 72-17 Win Over ETSU

Originally posted on Tennessee Volunteers on SI
By Caleb Sisk | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 9:00 AM ET

The Tennessee Volunteers have been impressive to start this season, including in their win over the ETSU Buccaneers. The Vols walked away with a 72-17 victory on Saturday. Here is what you need as we break down the good, bad, and the ugly of this contest for the Vols.

PS: There wasn't much bad and ugly, if any at all.

Good

The offensive protection was quite great in the game, as Aguilar wasn't attacked much in this one. For the most part you kept your QB's jersey as clean as you could, which is less hits that he had to take before playing an unforgiving Georgia defense. Aguilar did a good job at trusting his line, but they will be having a much more skilled front seven in front of them this week.

Bad

There wasn't much bad in this game, as they played fairly clean football. The main thing that was bad was the lack of depth that they were able to get in earlier in the game. They did a great job in all three phases of the football game.

Ugly

Although this isn't exactly ugly, I still have to put something here. Something you would have hoped to see more of is the Vols getting to the QB. The defensive back group did their job, but there were plenty other things that they could've done better getting home to the quarterback. The Vols didn't have many sacks, but they did do a good job containing the running game as usual.