The tight ends as a whole had 0 catches as Tennessee football dominated the Ball State Cardinals 59-10 in their opener Thursday. However, that doesn’t mean they didn’t play well.

Ball State’s defensive looks limited the targets for Jacob Warren, Princeton Fant and Hunter Salmon. For Warren, that meant finding ways to be more effective in the run game.

“I think I played pretty well on the blocks Thursday,” Warren said on The Vol Report. “First game, there’s a lot of things that you kind of have to get used to, whether it’s timing or understanding when to trigger on blocks and when to kind of be more, maybe not hesitant, but be more patient.”

Throughout the night, Ball State was dropping eight into coverage. This is why the Vols were able to gain over 200 yards and score five touchdowns on the ground.

They still gained over 350 yards through the air, but that was dependent on the receivers. Warren said that made it difficult to run the designed passing plays for the tight ends.

“It’s just not going to work,” he said. “It’s a bad play call into that particular coverage.”

Still, other players had opportunities as a result. Tennessee football had eight different receivers plus two running backs catch passes.

Bru McCoy had 42 receiving yards six days after he was ruled eligible to play. Walker Merrill and Jimmy Holiday each had the first touchdown reception of their careers.

“Seeing guys like that, it’s super awesome and fun to watch them come along and make plays,” Warren said.

Being able to adjust to Ball State’s coverage was another positive for the Vols. Warren mentioned that they came out and played completely different from what his unit had prepared for.

“We were expecting one thing as far as the fronts and the back end and kind of had a feeling that they could give us some different stuff, and they ended up getting to it, and we were still able to have some success and be able to adjust to it,” he said.

Hendon Hooker’s composure helped Tennessee football adjust

Obviously, whenever you have to adjust on offense, your quarterback’s leadership comes into play. Hendon Hooker was able to do just that for the Vols Thursday.

He completed 72 percent of his passes for 221 yards and scored four total touchdowns with no turnovers. Warren specifically credited him for helping the offense take what the defense gave it.

“In this offense, we’re not being greedy,” he said. “We’re going to take what we can get. We’re going to be smart.”

That was a big part of Hooker’s development that Warren touted. He said Hooker has always been really efficient.

This year, though, Warren said he is better at making other players look good. Being a “calming force” when something isn’t right was the phrase he used.

“He’s looking out for himself, but he’s also trying to make plays and trying to look out for the team at the same time,” he said.

Where this likely stands out the most is in sacks. Last year, Hooker was efficient but took a lot of sacks. He took just one Thursday, and it was only a one-yard loss on a rollout.

Such efficiency was the catalyst for the overall complete performance the offense had. Warren said the game left a “good taste” in the team’s mouth, and he noted that the offense could have put up 70.

“You leave that game happy that you take care of business against an opponent that you should take care of business against,” he said. “There should be no real question whether or not we should’ve won that game from the outside looking in as Tennessee playing Ball State.”

Preparing for Tennessee football’s rematch with Pitt

As the Vols were thrashing Ball State, the Pittsburgh Panthers were struggling to put away the West Virginia Mountaineers. They escaped with a 38-31 victory Thursday.

UT is set to visit Pitt Saturday. For Warren, being able to watch what they had to do against WVU’s offense can turn into an advantage.

“It was cool to see just how their defense played,” he said. “They’ve got a fast defense and some good athletes on there, some older guys.”

Last year, Tennessee football lost at home to Pitt 41-34. Hooker was inserted into the game after Joe Milton III got hurt and didn’t become the full-time starter until the next week. He threw an interception late that proved costly.

According to Warren, the issues in that game had a lot to do with not locking into details. He said they have been using that loss as a way to stay focused in practice.

Schematically, he expressed no concern about the receivers’ ability to handle the secondary. His focus has been on their front seven.

“They return a lot of those guys, a couple of good linebackers, a couple of good defensive ends, some good interior guys, so it’s obviously going to be more challenging this week up front,” he said. “They play with a lot of speed, and their front guys play with a lot of power.”