Tennessee looks to go to 2-0 to start the year as the Vols host first year head coach Eli Drinkwitz and his Missouri Tigers. To help get you ready we empty the notebook to close out game week with the week 2 installment of 10 Things I Think I Think
“We keep talking about finding ways to win. We found a way to win tonight, against what is to me, a really good football team,” Pruitt said a year ago of his teams win over Carolina. “If you look at their body of work over the first seven games, forget their record, look at who they’ve played and how they’ve played them. They have a good football team and we outplayed them tonight.”
2. Rip up the script - Jim Chaney likes to script his opening plays. Since his return to Rocky Top his scripts aren’t up for any Oscars in SEC play. Tennessee has just been flat out awful to start games in conference action. In 9 SEC games with Chaney as the OC, the Vols opening possessions have produced 7 punts and 2 interceptions and that’s with three different starting quarterbacks.
That script is about as good as the one for the cinema classic Mannequin 2 or Far and Away (the last movie I walked out of, I mean Tom Cruise was thrown off a horse, slammed his head on a rock, horse landed on him and he still gets up to plant the flag for his land).
3. Vols can’t get caught up in the eye candy — Not going to lie I was tempted to use one of BigCat’s Wednesday hump day pics here but everyone needs to focus on football this late in the week.
So let’s talk about football eye candy ... focus people
Drinkwitz' offensive system features a ton of pre-snap shifts and motions to try and allow the quarterback to get a read on the defense particularly in the secondary to know man or zone coverage and the philosophy from Drinkwitz is to try and force misalignments. Sophomore linebacker Henry To’o To’to must do a good job of getting his guys lined up and focused on their keys and not all the movement.
“Last week was kind of a downhill attacking rushing (style),” said DeAndre Johnson, who had 2.5 sacks versus South Carolina. “This week, kind of more zone, a lot of quarterback reads, so we just got to be disciplined off the edge. Make sure we’re looking at the right things as a defense and just running to the ball. We got to run to the ball a little better this week.”
Tennessee will have to set the edge better this week than they did last week in the second half. Missouri will run the zone read. They will run option and they like to quickly get the ball to the perimeter. Tennessee must not be soft on the end of the line of scrimmage.
4. JG should find comfort — A year ago, Guarantano had a field day against the Tigers throwing for 415 yards as the Vols averaged 10 yards completion. Guarantano was only sacked once a year ago. At South Carolina, JG was sacked twice and both appeared to be his fault holding the ball too long. One stat service said the Vol offensive line gave up fewer pressures than anyone in the SEC in week one. They should have a good day this week. Missouri against Alabama’s starting OL couldn’t get anywhere near Mac Jones. He had all day to throw. With the Vols OL, Guarantano should be comfortable. A year ago in this game Guarantano had 10 completions for 20+ yards as Chaney threw the ball vertical all night.
5. Vols will defend middle of the field better —South Carolina had a field day attacking the middle of the football field against the Vols. Jeremy Banks and Quavaris Crouch had growing pains. So did Deneiko Slaughter. Tennessee missed Jaylen McCullough as Bryce Thompson tried to manage playing out of position at safety. The Vols get McCullough back this week but not Shawn Shamburger. So it’s on Slaughter to grow from week one as well as Banks and Crouch. They will be better. Interesting in that Pruitt said on Volcalls he didn’t help them as much as he should noting there were 4-5 defensive calls he made for Derrick Ansley that weren’t good calls.
- Streaking Vols ain’t common place — With a win the Vols would have an 8 game winning streak for only the second time since 1998 Butch Jones did it from the end of the 2015 season through the first 5 games of the 2016 season. Yes, Butch Jones won 11 straight games as the Vols head coach. Trust me you can win drinks with friends over that bet. Jeremy Pruitt’s Vols after getting beat 35-13 a year ago by Alabama have won 7 straight by an average of 10.5 points, however 4 of the 7 have been by less than a touchdown.
“We keep talking about finding ways to win. We found a way to win tonight, against what is to me, a really good football team,” Pruitt said a year ago of his teams win over Carolina. “If you look at their body of work over the first seven games, forget their record, look at who they’ve played and how they’ve played them. They have a good football team and we outplayed them tonight.”
2. Rip up the script - Jim Chaney likes to script his opening plays. Since his return to Rocky Top his scripts aren’t up for any Oscars in SEC play. Tennessee has just been flat out awful to start games in conference action. In 9 SEC games with Chaney as the OC, the Vols opening possessions have produced 7 punts and 2 interceptions and that’s with three different starting quarterbacks.
That script is about as good as the one for the cinema classic Mannequin 2 or Far and Away (the last movie I walked out of, I mean Tom Cruise was thrown off a horse, slammed his head on a rock, horse landed on him and he still gets up to plant the flag for his land).
3. Vols can’t get caught up in the eye candy — Not going to lie I was tempted to use one of BigCat’s Wednesday hump day pics here but everyone needs to focus on football this late in the week.
So let’s talk about football eye candy ... focus people
Drinkwitz' offensive system features a ton of pre-snap shifts and motions to try and allow the quarterback to get a read on the defense particularly in the secondary to know man or zone coverage and the philosophy from Drinkwitz is to try and force misalignments. Sophomore linebacker Henry To’o To’to must do a good job of getting his guys lined up and focused on their keys and not all the movement.
“Last week was kind of a downhill attacking rushing (style),” said DeAndre Johnson, who had 2.5 sacks versus South Carolina. “This week, kind of more zone, a lot of quarterback reads, so we just got to be disciplined off the edge. Make sure we’re looking at the right things as a defense and just running to the ball. We got to run to the ball a little better this week.”
Tennessee will have to set the edge better this week than they did last week in the second half. Missouri will run the zone read. They will run option and they like to quickly get the ball to the perimeter. Tennessee must not be soft on the end of the line of scrimmage.
4. JG should find comfort — A year ago, Guarantano had a field day against the Tigers throwing for 415 yards as the Vols averaged 10 yards completion. Guarantano was only sacked once a year ago. At South Carolina, JG was sacked twice and both appeared to be his fault holding the ball too long. One stat service said the Vol offensive line gave up fewer pressures than anyone in the SEC in week one. They should have a good day this week. Missouri against Alabama’s starting OL couldn’t get anywhere near Mac Jones. He had all day to throw. With the Vols OL, Guarantano should be comfortable. A year ago in this game Guarantano had 10 completions for 20+ yards as Chaney threw the ball vertical all night.
5. Vols will defend middle of the field better —South Carolina had a field day attacking the middle of the football field against the Vols. Jeremy Banks and Quavaris Crouch had growing pains. So did Deneiko Slaughter. Tennessee missed Jaylen McCullough as Bryce Thompson tried to manage playing out of position at safety. The Vols get McCullough back this week but not Shawn Shamburger. So it’s on Slaughter to grow from week one as well as Banks and Crouch. They will be better. Interesting in that Pruitt said on Volcalls he didn’t help them as much as he should noting there were 4-5 defensive calls he made for Derrick Ansley that weren’t good calls.
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