Tennessee suffered an ugly loss to Florida last weekend in The Swamp and came into Week 4 needing a dominant win heading into the remainder of SEC play.

It wasn’t a 73-0 rout or anything, but the Vols did bounce back with a nice win Saturday at Neyland Stadium against the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners.

Tennessee jumped to a 31-0 lead by the end of the first half before faltering slightly and letting the Roadrunners make it respectable in the 3rd quarter. But the Vols took over once more in the 4th and sailed to a 45-14 win.

The Vols are now 3-1 heading into Week 5 against South Carolina.

Here are 3 takeaways from Tennessee’s Week 4 win.

Fast start

Tennessee did a lot of good things Saturday afternoon. Most of the good came in the first half.

The Vols have struggled out of the gate to start games in 2023. Weeks 2 and 3 against Austin Peay and Florida both offered pretty pathetic examples of how to start a football game, and the Vols suffered because of it. That wasn’t the case Saturday, though.

Tennessee played 27 fantastic minutes of football to start Week 4 before sort of slowing in the final 3 minutes of the first half. QB Joe Milton got things going, rushing for an 81-yard touchdown scamper on the first play of the game.

The Vols did whatever they wanted on the ground to start things out. Dylan Sampson especially had a fantastic game, putting up a career-high 139 yards with 2 touchdowns. He’s up to 5 rushing touchdowns on the season after an electric performance Saturday.

The Vols blanked UTSA in the first half, allowing just 98 total yards and 4 first downs.

Joe Milton is flashing concerning levels of inconsistency for Tennessee

Tennessee’s 2nd half was far, far from ideal. But it wasn’t a complete trainwreck, either.

A big reason why (wait for it, Vols fans!) is Joe Milton, who has become the definition of inconsistency for this Tennessee offense.

One half he’s making throws like this and running for 81-yard scores on the first play of the game:

And the next he’s struggling to hit an open receiver streaking down the sideline.

For further context on Milton’s inconsistent day for Tennessee, look no further than his splits in the first and second halves.

Milton completed 14 of his 21 attempts in the first half for 156 yards, 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He completed just 4 passes for 53 yards in the 2nd half, but it was much worse than what the stat sheet would reveal.

The Vols defense tightened up in the 4th quarter after a sluggish start. Most of UTSA’s damage out of the gate came in the 3rd quarter behind new QB Owen McCown, who took over for Eddie Marburger and led 2 touchdown drives in succession before the Vols’ defense took over.

McCown finished having completed 18 of his 20 passing attempts for 170 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception.

Less-than-ideal injury issues starting to mount

Tennessee ran into some injury issues Saturday against the Roadrunners.

For one, Cooper Mays still did not see action against UTSA in Week 4 despite being active. It’s obvious the coaching staff is being extra careful in that regard, so that wasn’t exactly unexpected.

One thing to note regarding Mays: Tennessee needs to improve greatly on the offensive line moving forward, and likely won’t do so until they’re healthy. Mays’ return won’t fix all the problems for the Vols, but it’s a step in the right direction.

What’s more worrying is what happened during the game. Milton was rolled up on in the first half and looked far from poised in the 2nd half. It’s hard to chalk his 2nd half performance up to that injury but take that as you will. He entered the game with a brace on his left knee following halftime.

Wesley Walker, Jaylen Wright, Ramel Keyton, Aaron Beasley, John Campbell and Dominic Bailey all suffered injuries throughout the game. Wright and Bailey were ruled out almost immediately. Keyton was showing signs of concussion in the 2nd half and did not return either. Not much is known regarding Beasley or Campbell as of final.

We’ll know more from Josh Heupel’s postgame press conference.