- Make an early splash —
Tennessee got out of the gates at a blistering pace at Kentucky. That’s not likely to be the case against Georgia but the Vols need to do what they have done all year and that’s win the first quarter. Tennessee has outscored their opponents 138-37 in the first 15 minutes and they have done it with big plays.
Tennessee has schematically in every game except Ole Miss and Florida made splash plays in the first quarter with Hendon Hooker at the controls.
Neyland Stadium should be rocking from the start and a first quarter splash would only ramp it up even more.
It won’t be easy as Georgia doesn’t let anyone score and they have only given up 13 plays of 25+ yards on the season.
2. Hang around —
In other words, don’t pull a Dan Mullen. Mullen and the Gators had a great opportunity to go to the locker room in a 3-0 game and make UGA feel a little uneasy. Mullen went for broke in the last 3 minutes of the first half and it ended up in disaster with 3 turnovers that Georgia turned into touchdowns — game over.
The reality is other than the Clemson game to open the season and the Kentucky game, the Bulldogs haven’t been in a game to start the second half. Every other game this season, the Bulldogs have led by 14 points or more at the half.
Josh Heupel is not going to change the way he plays offense. The Vols are going to play fast, but Heupel also has to be smart and call the game to hang around and make it interesting in the second half. What that means is don’t go for broke on every fourth down. Don’t do things out of character to what you have done all year.
You be you and find a way to hang round just as you did in Tuscaloosa.
3. Keep Hooker upright — This is the toughest challenge of the day for the Vol offense. Tennessee has given up 33 sacks on the season. Some of that is on the offensive line, some on the tight ends, some on the running backs and some on the quarterback. But the bottom line is that Hendon Hooker is getting hit too much. And Saturday is a heck of a challenge to keep Hooker vertical. Georgia has 28 sacks on the year and that total has been generated by 15 different guys. Nakobe Dean leads the way with 5. Georgia stats say they have generated 154 quarterback hurries on the year which is a crazy number.
By comparison, Tennessee has 24 sacks and 35 hurries on the year.
The Vol offensive line, tight ends and running backs have to be exceptional in pass protection and Hendon Hooker has to be decisive. If not, then he will hit the ground alot.
4. Tackle — Tennessee did tackle better in the second half at Kentucky then they did in the first half, but overall it was the worst tackling game of the year. Kentucky’s tailbacks were credited with 172 yards after contact according to PFF. They averaged 6.0 yards a carry. Zamir White and the downhill Georgia running game is coming. Tennessee has to match physicality early and they must wrap up better. The Vol defense has given up 707 yards rushing the last three games.
“It can be a lot of things, but we’re not going to make any excuses. We have to tackle better,” linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary said. “They gave us a couple new formations and they were sending receivers and tight ends from out in the perimeter to come and crack some of our interior guys, but we have to be able to adjust to that and do a better job. I think in the biggening when you watched it, we didn’t do a good job of matching their physicality. I thought we did that as the game went on. Some of those runs that you saw in the first quarter from those running backs you didn’t see in the second half. I thought we did a really good job of matching their intensity and then passing their intensity as far as the run game. We just have to do a better job of tackling in space as a team. Like you said, that’s the name of the game nowadays with football. People are going to try to get you in space and put their good athletes in space and see if you can make tackles. We didn’t do a great job of that on all three levels and that’s something that we’ve been working on this week.”
It’s going to be a long afternoon if the defense can’t tackle.
5. Third down execution — Defensively, the Vols have been awful the last three weeks giving up 38 third or fourth down conversions. They gave up just 37 the first six games. Why? Is this defense tired? Is it scheme? Is it lack of speed? Maybe yes. But the consistent message from the Vols has been that it starts with more awareness. Kamal Hadden lining up 22 yards off the ball back pedaling at the snap on 4th and 24 and gave Kentucky the conversion. Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary says the defense has to execute the “money” down better starting with his linebackers.
“Just understanding down and distances,” he said. “Everybody has their third down packages that they are going to run to get first downs, so it’s always been stick aware, understanding how deep their drops need to be and understanding pass protections as if we want to pressure on third down, we have to be able to beat one-on-one blocks. Even when we pressure, if we pressure with five and they’re blocking with five, we have a couple guys in one-on-one situations (and) we have to start winning those situations.”
Offensively, Tennessee has to stay on the field. They are just 5 for their last 23 on third and fourth down. Georgia is stingy on third down giving up on average less than 5 conversions a game. Opponents convert just 32% on third down.
Tennessee on both sides of the ball must execute on third down.
