There are vastly different opinions on Tennessee’s football team. First, there’s the Vol’s fan base, which is probably overly concerned about an overtime win against Florida last week. Then, there’s some unnamed coaches who faced Alabama or Tennessee who shared their opinions with The Athletic.
“They’re probably one of the best football teams I’ve seen in the last 10 years, honestly,” one coach shockingly said . “This is a team that can win the national championship. They have enough pieces. I was surprised they lost to Arkansas, but it’s hard to go undefeated. It might be the best thing that ever happened to them.”
Woah. That sounds like a coach that either works at Tennessee or just lost to the Vols and wants to make semblance out of falling short against the No. 11 team in the nation. The Vols may have “enough” pieces, but they don’t seem to have all the pieces, especially at offensive tackle where the Vols have struggled.
Perhaps opposing coaches are part of the reason that Tennessee has struggled offensively. Or maybe the Vols’ fan base has been a bit too hard on Tennessee, especially with the Vols’ offense, likely due to preseason expectations that mostly revolved around quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
Tennessee ranks No. 4 in the SEC in total offense with 485 yards per game. The Vols are fourth-best in the SEC in passing offense with 170 yards per game through the air and first in the SEC in rushing offense with 246 yards per game on the ground.
“That’s how you can slow them down,” another unnamed coach said. “They want to run. It looks like you can run into it, but then defenses get out of it. They’re probably going to see that a lot more,” one coach said. “They’re looking and taking time counting the box more than they normally do.”
That means that opposing coaches are onto Tennessee coach Josh Heupel’s trickery that helped him have one of the most potent offenses in 2022. The game is actually quite simple. The Vols want to run the ball if there aren’t enough defenders in the tackle box. Tennessee wants to throw if more defenders creep in to stop the run.
One coach suggested an old coaching maxim: Stop the run first. Then, he added that it’s important to take away the Vols’ highly publicized deep shots. That’s probably a bit easier said than done.
“If you slow them down and take away the deep shot, then you’ve got a chance,” one coach said. “You want to get them into 12 personnel with two tight ends as much as possible. If you can shift guys pre-snap, it slows them down and makes them think.
“If they’re going fast, they have the advantage. They don’t care what kind of front you’re in. They’re gonna go super fast, and it takes the defense out of what they can do. You try to get lined up as fast as possible but you’re probably going to set a guy free in the secondary. If you slow it down, now you can shift in and out of fronts. You can blitz and do different things to help you.”
One coach said the the Vols are just “one play from just jumping on you,” but that hasn’t happened this year against quality opponents, such as Oklahoma, Arkansas and Florida. Another coach said that some think Tennessee’s offensive line is “great,” but running back Dylan Sampson is the key to creating explosive plays. Let’s examine that for a moment.
First, Sampson is, indeed, the key to Tennessee’s rushing attack and, perhaps, the Vols’ entire offense. There’s no argument about that. Second, I don’t recall anyone saying Tennessee’s offensive line is great. In fact, Tennessee’s offensive line has seemed woefully bad at offensive tackle.
From a talent alone standpoint, the Vols seemingly have all the pieces in place. However, mistakes weren’t accounted for in the preseason or in the article by The Athletic. Clearly, self-inflicted wounds have been Tennessee main issue. Any coach can see that.
