Tennessee defense fizzles against Vanderbilt

The biggest mismatch inside of Neyland Stadium on Saturday wasn’t on the field, it was in the coaches box. Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator Tim Beck absolutely carved up Tim Banks’ defense, utilizing RPOs and OPOs. Banks never was able to counter as Diego Pavia threw for 268 yards and ran for another 165.

It certainly was a different style of offense, but it was a familiar result in the 2025 season.

“I mean ultimately the performance we had tonight is not anywhere near the standard of what Tennessee football is,” Josh Heupel said after the game of his defense.

That may be an understatement. Vanderbilt ran for 314 yards and Tennessee couldn’t get off the field. The Commodores were 7 /10 on third down conversions, holding the ball for 35 minutes. Vandy would punt just one single time.

“Ultimately you look at the run game, you know what I mean? So it starts there,” Heupel said. “Getting off the field on third down. End of the first half, got a stop, not smart football, give another set of downs and they get seven instead of kicking a field goal. It’s all those little things that add up to a result that you don’t like. And it looks like that on the scoreboard. This game, at this level, it’s small details.”

In the passing game, Diego Pavia had seven completions of over 20 yards. Several of those where absolute daggers where Tennessee was trying to fight to simply keep up with a hot Vanderbilt offense. Junior Sherrill and Tre Richardson made several plays on the sidelines with Vandy’s unique ‘OPO’ looks. Eli Stowers ran free over the middle of the field time and time again.

The Tennessee secondary certainly was dealt a bad hand with injuries all season long, and that has to be factored in, but it was also game No. 12 of the current situation. For most of the night, they looked completely lost. It wasn’t just about getting beat, it was about how wide open receivers were running. Vanderbilt just did whatever they wanted for the entire night.

Keep in mind this too — Pavia threw two interceptions early. This one could have gotten out of hand early on.

“There’s been a lot of things that we’ve had to deal with, in the beginning, middle parts of the season,” Heupel said. “Felt like we took some steps here last couple weeks, but this one just wrapped up a few seconds ago. It’s my job to evaluate everything inside of our program and, you know, I told our players we’ve had some disappointing results, but the second half was extremely disappointing. Coaches and players, not just one.”

It’s time to have a legitimate conversation on Tim Banks. Once again last night he failed to counter, leaving open running lanes for Pavia in five wide sets. That particular formation did lots of damage in key spots as Tennessee rushed wide and surrendered the middle of the field without a spy. Banks couldn’t find an answer, culminating in a 41-yard scramble in the third quarter with the Volunteers down ten.

Sure, Banks fielded an outstanding unit in 2024 that frankly was the backbone of Tennessee’s run to the College Football Playoff.

This year? Tennessee finishes 73rd in total defense.

In 2023 his defense ranked 33rd.

2022 — 92nd.

2021 — 99nd.

It’s worth wondering if that 2024 group wasn’t just an outlier, anchored by an outstanding defense with James Pearce and an emerging star at cornerback with Jermod McCoy.

Josh Heupel hasn’t made a staff change since arriving in Knoxville (without someone leaving for another opportunity). To be fair, there hasn’t really been a glaring need to do so. However, in this spot, it feels like something needs to change. Maybe it’s Banks, maybe it’s elsewhere on staff, maybe it’s a more aggressive stance on the transfer portal on the personnel side.

Heupel’s next move will be fascinating regardless.