I would encourage everyone associated with Tennessee football to develop an acute case of amnesia when trying to analyze our prospects (on offense) for 2018. Defensive football success is largely a function of talent and recruiting. Offensive football success is largely a function of development and coaching. I've posted a list of the nations most prolific offenses below:
Yards Per Game Leaders
RK TEAM YDS YDS/G PASS P YDS/G RUSH R YDS/G PTS PTS/G
1 Oklahoma 8114 580 5065 361.8 3049 217.8 632 45.1
2 Oklahoma State 7396 569 5059 389.2 2337 179.8 585 45.0
3 Louisville 7084 545 3898 299.8 3186 245.1 495 38.1
4 Memphis 6917 532 4355 335.0 2562 197.1 592 45.5
5 UCF 6896 530 4313 331.8 2583 198.7 627 48.2
6 South Florida 6156 513 2987 248.9 3169 264.1 459 38.3
7 Ohio State 7084 506 3679 262.8 3405 243.2 576 41.1
8 Missouri 6528 502 4012 308.6 2516 193.5 488 37.5
9 Florida Atlantic 6977 498 2983 213.1 3994 285.3 568 40.6
10 Arkansas State 5937 495 4106 342.2 1831 152.6 454 37.8
RK TEAM YDS YDS/G PASS P YDS/G RUSH R YDS/G PTS PTS/G
11 Colorado State 6402 492 3799 292.2 2603 200.2 434 33.4
12 Arizona 6364 490 2343 180.2 4021 309.3 537 41.3
13 USC 6777 484 4186 299.0 2591 185.1 456 32.6
14 Toledo 6775 484 3919 279.9 2856 204.0 509 36.4
15 SMU 6220 478 3823 294.1 2397 184.4 492 37.8
16 Texas Tech 6170 475 4338 333.7 1832 140.9 446 34.3
17 Wake Forest 6055 466 3599 276.8 2456 188.9 459 35.3
18 Ole Miss 5548 462 3941 328.4 1607 133.9 394 32.8
19 Penn State 5984 460 3772 290.2 2212 170.2 534 41.1
20 West Virginia 5975 460 4021 309.3 1954 150.3 449 34.5
Two things stand out about that list. On offense, coaching and development trumps elite recruiting. Also, Tennessee has enough talent to play great offense.
1) Coaching Matters
The vast majority of the great offensive teams are not affiliated with recruiting juggernauts. Only 4 of the top twenty offenses are on traditional recruiting powerhouses: (Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, and Penn State ) Of those 4, only Ohio State and USC have recruited better than Tennessee in the past 4 years. Coming out of high school, Tennessee has better players than 18 of the best 20 offenses.
The 2017 Tennessee offensive coaching staff was guilty of malpractice.
Larry Scott was a (good and bright) tight ends coach and designated lead recruiter. The tight ends and running backs coaches are usually the least involved in game planning and strategy. That's why those two positions are usually reserved for your best recruiters. There was nothing in his resume that indicated that he would be effective and he performed as one could have predicted.
Mike Canales is by all accounts a "great guy", but he might be the worst offensive football coach to ever stay employed. Bad offenses and losing have followed him across the country, but he somehow keeps getting jobs. His first Power 5 job ended at Arizona in 2006 when he was the QB coach and OC of the 115th ranked offense (out of 119). He resurfaced at a good program with Jim Leavitt at South Florida. He was fine as a WR coach, but Leavitt promoted him to QB/OC in 2009 and the offense immediately dropped from 32nd to 71st. North Texas was abysmal for the 4 years that he was there (he was actually the interim HC twice after getting two staffs fired).
Walt Wells is another example of Butch Jones apparently not having access to Google. Wells was fired by Eastern Kentucky, South Florida, and New Mexico State. His work at South Florida was particularly impressive. He was there only one year as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator and the Bulls finished 124th (out of 126) in offense. I can't find Wells current coaching gig on Google. I do know that he replaced Don Mahoney who is now coaching OL at mighty Concord University. Concord went 2-9 against a bunch of West Virginia small colleges and they were shut out twice en route to a 15 points scored per game season.
Kevin Beard- no comment....just pitiful
We have absolutely no idea what our current players will look like when they play for coaches that have a proven track record of success. Let's briefly compare the resumes:
Ty Helton was the QB coach at UAB, WKU, and USC. He developed unrecruited kids into NFL Quarterbacks at UAB and Western. Sam Darnold was a freshman All-American and projects as a NFL first rounder. Darnold was ranked around 150 coming out of high school. Helton was the OC at Western Kentucky for only two seasons and they ranked 5th and 9th in team offense....amazing!
Will Friend coached OL at UAB, Georgia, and Colorado State. The UAB teams set school records for total offense. The Georgia teams were consistently in the top 30 offenses. The Georgia teams were also ranked in the top twenty for sacks allowed and rushing yards. The 2014 Bulldogs were 12th in rushing offense. They were second only to Wisconsin for teams that run pro-sets. Georgia's offense was terrible after Bobo and Friend left.. (they fell to 82nd nationally.)
David Johnson was the WR coach at Memphis for the last 2 years. Memphis finished 14th and 7th in receiving yardage...nuff said.
Yards Per Game Leaders
RK TEAM YDS YDS/G PASS P YDS/G RUSH R YDS/G PTS PTS/G
1 Oklahoma 8114 580 5065 361.8 3049 217.8 632 45.1
2 Oklahoma State 7396 569 5059 389.2 2337 179.8 585 45.0
3 Louisville 7084 545 3898 299.8 3186 245.1 495 38.1
4 Memphis 6917 532 4355 335.0 2562 197.1 592 45.5
5 UCF 6896 530 4313 331.8 2583 198.7 627 48.2
6 South Florida 6156 513 2987 248.9 3169 264.1 459 38.3
7 Ohio State 7084 506 3679 262.8 3405 243.2 576 41.1
8 Missouri 6528 502 4012 308.6 2516 193.5 488 37.5
9 Florida Atlantic 6977 498 2983 213.1 3994 285.3 568 40.6
10 Arkansas State 5937 495 4106 342.2 1831 152.6 454 37.8
RK TEAM YDS YDS/G PASS P YDS/G RUSH R YDS/G PTS PTS/G
11 Colorado State 6402 492 3799 292.2 2603 200.2 434 33.4
12 Arizona 6364 490 2343 180.2 4021 309.3 537 41.3
13 USC 6777 484 4186 299.0 2591 185.1 456 32.6
14 Toledo 6775 484 3919 279.9 2856 204.0 509 36.4
15 SMU 6220 478 3823 294.1 2397 184.4 492 37.8
16 Texas Tech 6170 475 4338 333.7 1832 140.9 446 34.3
17 Wake Forest 6055 466 3599 276.8 2456 188.9 459 35.3
18 Ole Miss 5548 462 3941 328.4 1607 133.9 394 32.8
19 Penn State 5984 460 3772 290.2 2212 170.2 534 41.1
20 West Virginia 5975 460 4021 309.3 1954 150.3 449 34.5
Two things stand out about that list. On offense, coaching and development trumps elite recruiting. Also, Tennessee has enough talent to play great offense.
1) Coaching Matters
The vast majority of the great offensive teams are not affiliated with recruiting juggernauts. Only 4 of the top twenty offenses are on traditional recruiting powerhouses: (Oklahoma, Ohio State, USC, and Penn State ) Of those 4, only Ohio State and USC have recruited better than Tennessee in the past 4 years. Coming out of high school, Tennessee has better players than 18 of the best 20 offenses.
The 2017 Tennessee offensive coaching staff was guilty of malpractice.
Larry Scott was a (good and bright) tight ends coach and designated lead recruiter. The tight ends and running backs coaches are usually the least involved in game planning and strategy. That's why those two positions are usually reserved for your best recruiters. There was nothing in his resume that indicated that he would be effective and he performed as one could have predicted.
Mike Canales is by all accounts a "great guy", but he might be the worst offensive football coach to ever stay employed. Bad offenses and losing have followed him across the country, but he somehow keeps getting jobs. His first Power 5 job ended at Arizona in 2006 when he was the QB coach and OC of the 115th ranked offense (out of 119). He resurfaced at a good program with Jim Leavitt at South Florida. He was fine as a WR coach, but Leavitt promoted him to QB/OC in 2009 and the offense immediately dropped from 32nd to 71st. North Texas was abysmal for the 4 years that he was there (he was actually the interim HC twice after getting two staffs fired).
Walt Wells is another example of Butch Jones apparently not having access to Google. Wells was fired by Eastern Kentucky, South Florida, and New Mexico State. His work at South Florida was particularly impressive. He was there only one year as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator and the Bulls finished 124th (out of 126) in offense. I can't find Wells current coaching gig on Google. I do know that he replaced Don Mahoney who is now coaching OL at mighty Concord University. Concord went 2-9 against a bunch of West Virginia small colleges and they were shut out twice en route to a 15 points scored per game season.
Kevin Beard- no comment....just pitiful
We have absolutely no idea what our current players will look like when they play for coaches that have a proven track record of success. Let's briefly compare the resumes:
Ty Helton was the QB coach at UAB, WKU, and USC. He developed unrecruited kids into NFL Quarterbacks at UAB and Western. Sam Darnold was a freshman All-American and projects as a NFL first rounder. Darnold was ranked around 150 coming out of high school. Helton was the OC at Western Kentucky for only two seasons and they ranked 5th and 9th in team offense....amazing!
Will Friend coached OL at UAB, Georgia, and Colorado State. The UAB teams set school records for total offense. The Georgia teams were consistently in the top 30 offenses. The Georgia teams were also ranked in the top twenty for sacks allowed and rushing yards. The 2014 Bulldogs were 12th in rushing offense. They were second only to Wisconsin for teams that run pro-sets. Georgia's offense was terrible after Bobo and Friend left.. (they fell to 82nd nationally.)
David Johnson was the WR coach at Memphis for the last 2 years. Memphis finished 14th and 7th in receiving yardage...nuff said.
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