1. Don’t get too cute — This Bowling Green team is young and gave up a ton of yards and points a season ago. They gave up over 300 yards a game on the ground. They lost a bunch to transfer this off-season and don’t have great depth.
There won’t be many times this season where Tennessee is better than their opponent across the board like they are Thursday night.
There’s no need to be exotic or even clever. Be sound, be clean, be physical and don’t get cute.
2. What is it? — What exactly is the Tim Banks defensive scheme? It’s multiple as is every defense in football. But what is the calling card of this defense. We hear the audibles/calls aren’t as complex. But what is this defense? Are they are in a 4 man front most of the time? Are they going to based out of a 4-3 or will they be a 4-2-5 team.
Bowling Green was terrible offensively last year. Banks said he wants his unit to be offensive but isn’t getting specific about his defense’s identity.
“I wouldn't tell you even if we had,” Banks said when asked what his base defense would be. “No, we're going to be multiple. I mean, I don't think that's the secret. You're going to see two backs and multiple tight ends one week, and then another week, you may see all empty. I think you need to be multiple, so that's the way we're building the defense. Based on who we're playing, we may feature one front maybe more than the other and maybe more defensive backs more than the other. So, is this really going to be based on the game.”
Banks said his unit has improved daily starting with effort and understand.
“As cliché as it may sound, I think the guys are playing extremely hard. I think at the end of the day, we’re doing a better job of understanding our fits and responsibilities within every package that we have. Now, exactly which package we run the most will be determined by who we’re playing and what they present, the challenges and opportunities we have. At the end of the day, I think for us right now we’re just doing a better job overall executing and playing extremely hard.”
3. Allow me to introduce myself —
The Joe Milton era is underway. I’m with Austin in that I always believed Milton would be the starter as long as he could manage the offense which he has clearly done this fall camp according to Josh Heupel.
“At the end of the day felt like Joe; his grasp of our offense in a short amount of time, the growth over the middle portion of training camp, his acceleration of what we’re doing, his physical attributes and decision making led us to put the ball in his hands here for the first ball game,”
Milton simply offers the best upside and is a guy who can make plays with his big arm and with his legs. Perfect he will not be, but he offers the chance to make big plays in what Josh Heupel expects to be a high octane offense.
4. Finish drives — It’s one of the key stats for me. A year ago, the Vol offense scored 15 touchdowns in 23 trips in the redzone and they converted just 30% of their third downs in 10 games. While in Orlando last year, Josh Heupel’s offense scored 37 touchdowns in their 55 redzone attempts and converted 49% of their third downs. Think quarterback play doesn’t make a difference? Tennessee’s offense in the SEC won’t be as productive as UCF was a year ago in the AAC, but this offense has to produce and that can’t mean every score is a 50 yard bomb. This offense has to be able to finish drives in the redzone with touchdowns not field goals and they have to get into that situation more than 23 times.
5. Leave no doubt —I’m not a big run up the score guy and that’s not what I’m suggesting, but this offense needs to show themselves. They need success to build confidence. Defensively they need the same thing. Tennessee is supposed to win big. After last year and all the craziness of the season with COVID protocols and then the lose 7 of your last 8 as the wheels came off, this team should be more than fired up about playing. Tennessee should not only win but they need to do it in impressive fashion to generate some buzz and juice with this team and it’s fans.
There won’t be many times this season where Tennessee is better than their opponent across the board like they are Thursday night.
There’s no need to be exotic or even clever. Be sound, be clean, be physical and don’t get cute.
2. What is it? — What exactly is the Tim Banks defensive scheme? It’s multiple as is every defense in football. But what is the calling card of this defense. We hear the audibles/calls aren’t as complex. But what is this defense? Are they are in a 4 man front most of the time? Are they going to based out of a 4-3 or will they be a 4-2-5 team.
Bowling Green was terrible offensively last year. Banks said he wants his unit to be offensive but isn’t getting specific about his defense’s identity.
“I wouldn't tell you even if we had,” Banks said when asked what his base defense would be. “No, we're going to be multiple. I mean, I don't think that's the secret. You're going to see two backs and multiple tight ends one week, and then another week, you may see all empty. I think you need to be multiple, so that's the way we're building the defense. Based on who we're playing, we may feature one front maybe more than the other and maybe more defensive backs more than the other. So, is this really going to be based on the game.”
Banks said his unit has improved daily starting with effort and understand.
“As cliché as it may sound, I think the guys are playing extremely hard. I think at the end of the day, we’re doing a better job of understanding our fits and responsibilities within every package that we have. Now, exactly which package we run the most will be determined by who we’re playing and what they present, the challenges and opportunities we have. At the end of the day, I think for us right now we’re just doing a better job overall executing and playing extremely hard.”
3. Allow me to introduce myself —
The Joe Milton era is underway. I’m with Austin in that I always believed Milton would be the starter as long as he could manage the offense which he has clearly done this fall camp according to Josh Heupel.
“At the end of the day felt like Joe; his grasp of our offense in a short amount of time, the growth over the middle portion of training camp, his acceleration of what we’re doing, his physical attributes and decision making led us to put the ball in his hands here for the first ball game,”
Milton simply offers the best upside and is a guy who can make plays with his big arm and with his legs. Perfect he will not be, but he offers the chance to make big plays in what Josh Heupel expects to be a high octane offense.
4. Finish drives — It’s one of the key stats for me. A year ago, the Vol offense scored 15 touchdowns in 23 trips in the redzone and they converted just 30% of their third downs in 10 games. While in Orlando last year, Josh Heupel’s offense scored 37 touchdowns in their 55 redzone attempts and converted 49% of their third downs. Think quarterback play doesn’t make a difference? Tennessee’s offense in the SEC won’t be as productive as UCF was a year ago in the AAC, but this offense has to produce and that can’t mean every score is a 50 yard bomb. This offense has to be able to finish drives in the redzone with touchdowns not field goals and they have to get into that situation more than 23 times.
5. Leave no doubt —I’m not a big run up the score guy and that’s not what I’m suggesting, but this offense needs to show themselves. They need success to build confidence. Defensively they need the same thing. Tennessee is supposed to win big. After last year and all the craziness of the season with COVID protocols and then the lose 7 of your last 8 as the wheels came off, this team should be more than fired up about playing. Tennessee should not only win but they need to do it in impressive fashion to generate some buzz and juice with this team and it’s fans.
