Former Tennessee offensive lineman Mike Stowell had some strong opinions about the Vols’ offensive line as it prepares for Florida tonight.
“Soft,” said Stowell when asked to describe the Vols offensive line this season leading up to tonight’s game against the Gators. “Or I don’t know if ‘soft’ is the word to say. When I say ‘soft’, their technique is poor. Poor technique is probably a better way to describe that. And the soft goes along with that, just in the way that they use their body and their leverage, just the technique is not good.”
Stowell, who played for the Vols from 1988 to 1992 and was a sideline reporter for the Vol Network, said the issues could be a culmination of things. When asked about Tennessee’s offensive line, especially with LSU transfer Lance Heard as the Vols’ starting left tackle, Stowell said youth, inexperience and coaching could all have been a part of the sophomore’s poor performance against Arkansas last week.
“It’s all the above, right?” Stowell said. “When you’re an offensive lineman, you’ve got to perfect your craft because every movement you make matters. Every little twitch, every little step in the wrong way, you can get beat.”
Stowell said he noticed as much about the Vols even when Tennessee was winning. He said he first saw fundamental issues against Chattanooga when the Vols hammered the Mocs 69-3 in the season opener.
“It’s with the way that they set,” Stowell said of Heard at left tackle and John Campbell Jr., at right tackle. “It’s the way that they have their feet…Massive human beings and they don’t use their body to their advantage.
Stowell’s issue with Tennessee’s offensive line certainly wasn’t with the interior of the line, which is led by center Cooper Mays. Stowell pointed out that Mays and right guard Javontez Spraggins had played well to this point in the season.
“Every position within the offensive line is different,” Stowell said. “Your mentality is different. Your personnel and the makeup (in Tennessee’s offense) is your guards can be pretty aggressive. They can have a little bit of a nastiness to them. So that because you’re protected.
“You have a tackle over here…your technique doesn’t have to be as flawless. Yes, you still have to have good technique. You have to understand blocking schemes and things like that, but, overall, I think because of the way the tackles are just not being physical and using their technique and their bodies and their leverage to their advantage. It kind of downplays a lot of what happens inside.”
Soft certainly won’t get things done tonight. Tennessee hosts Florida at 7 EST in Neyland Stadium.
