Tennessee football: Parity, Indiana State, take a beating against Vols

Parity has been a popular theme just two weekends into this college football season.

You heard about parity when Howard beat UNLV. You heard about parity when Liberty beat Baylor.

More:Tennessee 42, Indiana State 7: Five things we learned from Vols' romp

You didn’t hear about parity Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium as the Vols cruised past Indiana State 42-7.

Instead, you might have heard about Tennessee Tech in the first half, as in: “Indiana State looks almost as bad as Tennessee Tech did last season.”

Actually, the Sycamores proved in the second half they weren’t nearly as inept as the team the Vols beat 55-0 last November. But they didn’t remind anyone of Georgia Tech, which pushed UT to the brink of defeat before losing 42-41 in double overtime at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

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Credit Tennessee with basically doing what an SEC team is supposed to do against an FCS opponent. Nonetheless, fans probably weren’t thrilled with an offense that produced only 14 points in the second half after UT cruised to a 28-0 first-half lead.

Quarterback Quinten Dormady, who didn’t commit a turnover against Georgia Tech, lost a fumble to set up Indiana State’s touchdown and killed a UT third-quarter drive when he threw an interception in the end zone. Neither mishap created suspense against an outmanned opponent.

Nor did the turnovers thrust UT’s famous sideline trash can into prominence. It's for depositing an opponent’s turnovers, not Tennessee’s.

With the trash can sidelined, backups and a backward Indiana State offense stole the show.

UT’s Ty Chandler, subbing for injured All-American kick returner Evan Berry, returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown. Backup running back Carlin Fils-aime scored two first-half touchdowns. And backup quarterback Jarrett Guarantano threw the first touchdown pass of his college career.

The Indiana State offense often was much ado about nothing.

The Sycamores shifted. They shifted again.

They went in motion one way. They went in motion the other way.

More: Trash can was empty for Tennessee Vols against Indiana State

For all that activity, they struggled to make any headway against a Tennessee defense, which, just five days earlier, frequently looked incapable of hitting a moving target. It had no problem hitting a slower moving target this time.

Evaluate with caution, though.

Bob Shoop said don’t judge the defense by its performance against Georgia Tech, as though the option-oriented flexbone were so unorthodox that something as basic as tackling couldn’t be evaluated.

If you are throwing out single-game assessments, you also should dismiss what happened against the Sycamores. Saturday’s Georgia Tech-Jacksonville State game might be a better indicator of UT’s defensive prowess, or lack thereof.

Georgia Tech had 655 total yards against UT. It had 322 in a 37-10 victory over FCS opponent Jacksonville State on Saturday.

The Yellow Jackets rushed for 535 yards on the Vols. They managed 210 against the Gamecocks.

Georgia Tech quarterback TaQuon Marshall looked like a Heisman Trophy winner against UT, rushing for 249 yards on 44 carries. He had 25 yards on 13 carries against Jacksonville State.

But what happened against Georgia Tech and Indiana State won’t matter this week. The Vols are headed for The Swamp, where the Gators are waiting.

There's no better place for finding out just how good the Vols are.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him at: Twitter.com/johnadamskns.