Coach Doug Mathews
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The Vols have spent the last three weeks, including two games with ETSU and UTEP, and practice this week preparing for the SEC schedule that starts Saturday against Florida. This staff now knows what the playing rotation for each position group is and what they are capable of doing from an execution standpoint. It was clear watching these past two games Coach Pruitt has settled in on those players who will play against Florida. Most of them got extensive playing time….not hard to see who they are counting on this week. I won’t go into every player group….I have done that in the past….but there are about 20 players on offense and 20 players on defense that will play, if healthy, all of the meaningful snaps this Saturday. Now the question as it always does becomes “are we good enough” to win. Is the talent there?….are we coached up enough? Saturday will answer those questions….at least for one game.
Florida is a lot like us. There is a reason why both programs made coaching changes after last season. In a nutshell after watching both teams play three games it appears each has enough good SEC players to offer hope but not enough to get those hopes too high. Again that’s why there was a coaching change at both programs.
I like our offensive matchup with Florida’s defense. We clearly want to run the ball and throw play action pass and the Gators have not played the run well at all so far. Kentucky, the only capable opponent they have played, rushed for over 300 yards….100 of that total was by Ky’s quarterback and Guarantano (#2) is not that type of runner…but still there are opportunities running the ball. One area that is often over looked is the blocking ability of wide receivers. Callaway and Jennings are strong blockers both at the point of attack (on bubble screens) and downfield on basic runs. With our running backs’ ability good down filed blocking at receiver is a huge winning edge that can turn medium runs into big gains. No SEC team I have seen so far comes close to the physical blocking of our group of receivers and I would put Byrd (#10) in that group also. Playmakers win games against Florida and three games in our playmakers are as follows: Chandler (#8), Jordan (#9), Wood-Anderson (#4), Callaway (#1), Palmer (#84) and Jennings (#15). I believe this staff will use every snap on offense to get one of these players the ball….they are the BWG…the “best we got” and if the BWG ain’t good enough we’ll have to find another way to win and there are a number of ways to win any game.
Most of the offensive line inconsistencies appear to be at the two guard positions. Remember this…..Carvin (#75) is a true freshman and J. Johnson (#58) is a transfer with one year’s experience in junior college. It takes time for young players to learn how to play at this level….but if you watch closely both of these young men have a huge upside…..both are good athletes and I have no doubt will quickly develop into good offensive linemen. When the offensive line starts playing as a unit, and at some point they will, this offense can be a very good group. Note: every starter and every back up, except at quarterback, is an underclassman.
If we continue being relative turnover free and if we get the silly offensive penalties cleaned up we should have a great opportunity to win in the 4th quarter with our offense.
On defense we now have a good idea of who we are. More importantly Coach Pruitt knows who we are. Exactly what the secondary will look like Saturday is unclear to me. I still think that when it is all settled at some point our secondary will look like this…..Taylor (#6) and Thompson (#20) at corners and Warrior (#18), Jackson (#26) and Shamburger (#15) at the safety and nickel back positions. Flowers (#25) is coming along and at some point will be playing this year. (That’s 3 freshmen, 2 sophomores and a junior.) Why this group….because they are faster, quicker and more talented that those who have been playing so far this year. Eventually those three factors overcome less talented experience! Looking ahead to our next four games speed in the secondary is a must.
The front four are solid….not great against the run but solid, not great in pass rush but solid. The inside linebackers are the best part of our defense (Kirkland, Jr (#34), Bituli (#35) with Sapp (#14) and probably Ignont (#23) as backups. They are playing fast right now and getting in on a lot of tackles.
Overall don’t look for a whole lot of pressure blitz’ except in definite passing situations. The last two games we have improved in playing base defense…..plus we can expect Florida to throw more than they run and having seven players in pass coverage gives CJP a lot of options in coverage packages.
Both Florida and Tennessee will aggressively try to block punts….Florida has blocked four in three games and the Vols have blocked two. I suspect punters and snappers on both sides have had the attention of their head coach holding a stop watch all week. How does a coach decide to block a punt….pretty simple…..if the time between the snap and the ball hitting the foot of the punter is greater than 1.9 seconds you are in danger of hearing the other teams’ band play. Our best punt teams operation time was 1.7 to 1.8 and we rarely had opponents even try to block. One other factor…..you want the ball kicked no closer than nine yards deep from where the ball was snapped. Two step punters (as opposed to three step punters) speed up the operation and all of Tennessee’s single wing tailbacks and punters from Ron Widby through all the Colquitt’s have been two step punters. Thank you Coach George “Bad News” Cafego! One final factor…..the head coach must have the intestinal fortitude to call a punt block and in a huge rival game…..with the score close it takes a lot of “guts” to call a punt block when you are assured of getting the ball back for you offense on a punt. Stay tuned…and let’s Talk next week.