Tennessee’s offense is different this season, right? Well, maybe not so much.
“I’m not really sure if we’re that much different,” UT center Cooper Mays said during The Vol Report. “I think just the way stuff unfolds, you realize you have some strengths here and there that you may not have had the year before or some different stuff that unfolds and you realize kind of you get your groove going a little bit and you kind of figure out what’s your bread and butter?
“And I think having a backfield full of three guys that are really, really good…That really bodes well and and does well for us because everybody’s fresh all the time. And it’s hard to stop those guys.”
Indeed. Mays was exactly sure of the statistics that best describe the Vols’ running game this year – so I offered up some numbers. The Vols 231 yards per game is sixth in the country. The Vols’ 5.8 yards per carry is fifth in the nation, led by a trio of talented tailbacks: Jaylen Wright, Jabari Small and Dylan Sampson.
There has been plenty of hand-wringing in Knoxville amongst Tennessee fans that aren’t as content with this year’s chip-and-run offense compared to the Vols’ chunk-and-score attack that took the nation by storm. Tennessee tight end Jacob Warren doesn’t seem to mind.
“I like winning games,” the senior said during The Vol Report. “Running the ball and throwing the short routes is the way we’re going to win games, and I do not care. I love watching it, man…I mean, those 40, 50, 60-yard balls aren’t coming to tight ends for the most part, right? They’re going to fast guys. So whether we’re sitting back there in protection or running a different route or whatever, and just watching that ball fly in the air and having the confidence that he’s going to come down with it (either) is really cool.
Warren has benefitted. After catching just 12 passes for 163 yards and no touchdowns in 2022, the former Farragut (Tenn.) High School star has caught eight passes for 61 yards and three touchdowns and it’s just mid-October.
“I think I’ll always be hypercritical of my game and of myself,” Warren said, “but I’m pretty proud of just how I’ve played and how I’ve competed, and kind of the mentality that I’ve had the past few games of just, you know, this is the last one, right? This is the last ride and it’s the last opportunities that I’m going to get.”
Tennessee’s new offense, or the same offense per Mays, may be benefitting Warren, but it’s also benefitting the Vols ability to control games. Sure, this offense looks different, but that doesn’t mean it’s substandard.
