No Jermod McCoy and a dicey situation full of unknowns surrounding Boo Carter? No problem for the Tennessee secondary.
McCoy, who was in sweats on the sideline as he continues to nurse his knee back to full strength, handed his top cornerback role to Rickey Gibson. Transfer Colton Hood manned the opposite corner position while veteran Jalen McMurray started at STAR in place of Carter.
While Tennessee did give up some throws in key spots, a handful of secondary members really made their mark on the game
in various different ways. The Tennessee corners were active against the Orange, playing sticky man coverage and constantly getting their hands on the football. Most notably, senior Jalen McMurray had a massive day. The former Temple transfer was everywhere against Syracuse, credited with a pass break-up, a sack and seven total tackles.
McMurray’s deflection was in the backfield, which led to a wild interception by linebacker Jeremiah Telander.
“Man, I thought he was a good football player,” Fran Brown said of McMurray after the game. “I thought he was a good football player since he was being recruited out of high school. I just thought he could play ball.”
McMurray has generated buzz throughout fall camp and it’s clear that Tennessee is very comfortable plugging him in at both STAR and cornerback going forward. That’s nice for the depth considering the uncertainty around Jermod McCoy going forward.
Colorado transfer Colton Hood wasted no time making an impact at his new home. Hood got the start and found himself with a scoop and score touchdown just several minutes into the game to extend the lead out to 17-0. He also found himself in plenty of spots to make plays on the ball, where he was credited with three pass break-ups.
“The strength in one position group can never be one guy,” Josh Heupel said of his cornerback room. “Colton has come in, he’s handled himself with great maturity, blended into the fabric of the culture of our football team extremely quickly. He’s smart, he’s competitive, cares about the people around him, great teammate. It was great to see him go out there and, obviously make a huge play in the football game, but play well throughout the course of it.”
We knew who the top guys in the rotation would be, and we had a decent idea of who would be the next man up as well. However, I’m not sure many saw true freshman Ty Redmond playing as many snaps as he did on Saturday. He was a guy that the staff praised all camp long and he forced his way onto the field right out of the gates. He was able to bat away a handful of passes, two officially, but he held up in coverage all afternoon long.
“Young guys that didn’t have time to be young,” Heupel said of Redmond and fellow true freshman linebacker Jaedon Harmon. “Certainly in this one, you’re playing a really good opponent. I thought the biggest testament to them is nobody had any hesitation of playing those guys.”
Redmond and Hood were Tennessee’s highest graded defensive players, per PFF. McMurray was third.
Tennessee had some clear breakdowns in zone coverage against Steve Angeli, and to his credit he made them pay when he had time to throw. That should improve once Tennessee gets McCoy back. Keep in mind too that Tennessee was breaking in a couple of new safeties alongside of veteran Andre Turrentine. The more reps for both Edrees Farooq and Kaleb Beasley, the stronger this group will be.
You’ve got to like the playmaking ability that you saw out of this group to get things going though.
