A simple but telling stat highlights primary issue that Tennessee Vols have been dealing with in 2025
The numbers show how poor Tennessee has been in a crucial area this season.
It’s been a starkly different tale on both sides of the football for the Tennessee Volunteers this season. Josh Heupel’s offense shook off the loss of Nico Iamaleava and a host of wide receivers from last year and has become one of the best in the country past the halfway point of the 2025 season.
Conversely, defensive coordinator Tim Banks’ group has had a rough season. The Vols’ brick wall of a defense in 2024 that helped carry the team to the postseason is far in the rearview mirror, and what’s left has struggled early and often.
Those struggles were highlighted in particular by ESPN’s recent list of defensive stop rates, where the Vols were looking up at a whole lot of teams.
Tennessee ranks 97th in the country in defensive stop rate according to ESPN
According to ESPN, stop rate is measured by taking the number of times the defense forced a punt, a turnover, or a turnover on downs and dividing that by all drives. Basically, it accounts for any drive that doesn’t end up in points being scored on it, with end-of-half/game kneel downs taken out of the equation. Pretty simple, but also pretty important.
Tennessee checks in at 97th nationally with a 57.1% stop rate. That puts them even with the team they put up 45 points on in the season opener – Syracuse. They’re far away from any team other fellow team in playoff contention. By point of reference, Ole Miss is tied for 67th nationally with a 62.1% stop rate, and Vanderbilt is tied for 69th at 62%. Most of the other playoff contenders are near the top.
It really highlights just how problematic Tennessee’s defense has been, and how a historically good Tennessee offense with a terrific season from QB Joey Aguilar has kept their playoff hopes afloat. Naturally, the loss of cornerbacks Jermod McCoy and Rickey Gibson III to injuries has hurt, but Tennessee’s issues have gone well beyond just the starting cornerback play, and Colorado transfer Colton Hood has helped pick up that slack in a big way. The Vols’ defensive line depth (particularly on the interior) and shaky linebacker have also played a part in the defensive woes as the season has gone along.
If the Vols are going to get past Oklahoma, Florida, and Vanderbilt and return to the College Football Playoff this season, Banks is going to have to figure out how to get his defense off the field more often than he has been through 8 games.
Otherwise, an exciting and explosive offensive performance on the offensive side of the ball will have been all for naught.
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