- The reality of it part 2 — Last week the reality is that Georgia was just better overall than Tennessee. Saturday night, the Vols showed they were just more talented and better than South Alabama. As Jayson Swain on the Vol Network pre-game show, Tennessee is better than South Alabama on the Jaguars best day. They are and to the Vols credit they showed it from the opening possession Saturday night. Tennessee was dominating in the line of scrimmage.
2. I see you Omari Thomas — The focus for Omari Thomas from the moment Rodney Garner arrived was to play lower and when you thought you were playing low, play even lower. Thomas and Garner will tell you today that the Memphis product still isn’t playing low enough but the sophomore is making plays. In the last two games, Thomas has 7 tackles, 2 tfls, a pbu, and a quarterback hurry. Thomas’ TFL on the second play from scrimmage was a tone setter for sure. Thomas isn’t going to be an all-American player at Tennessee and I still believe he could be a better offensive tackle than defensive tackle, but give Garner credit as he is turning Thomas into a more than capable SEC defensive tackle.
3. Hello tight ends — One of the things I really appreciate and respect with Josh Heupel is that you just never know who might be a focus or what might be a focal point in his offensive plan. Sure you have staples like the switch route which they ran to Velus Jones for a deep ball Saturday night like they did against Kentucky, but there are always wrinkles.
Seeing the tight ends get six targets last week against Georgia after Javonta Payton’s injury made me think the tight ends could be a factor against South Alabama. And they were racking up 10 catches. Princeton Fant and Jacob Warren have both had solid years. Both could come back next year and see there roles grow in the offense especially with the departures of Velus Jones and Jonvata Payton.
Alex Golesh has done a good job with that group and I liked that they used them in different ways in the passing game Saturday. It wasn’t just the simple five yard out pattern.
4. Lack of special teams awareness maddening — Tennessee has two blocked punts on the year. Paxton Brooks has had a good year punting the ball. Velus Jones has been good in both kickoff and punt returns, but the lack of awareness at times on special teams is maddening. Earlier in the year, Tennessee gave up a fake punt for a touchdown to South Carolina. Saturday night, the Vols gave up a fake punt for a first down and simply were not on onside alert to start the second half. Tennessee has to be more mentally locked into situations. The Vols are playing Vanderbilt Saturday in what is the Commodores Super Bowl. There’s not much going well in the world of Vanderbilt athletics. An upset of Tennessee would make their year. You can bet that the ‘Dores will pull out on the stops on Saturday which means Tennessee must be more alert and aware in the kicking game in their regular season finale.
5. Roman Harrison had his best night — According to Pro Football Focus, Harrison graded out the highest of any defensive player. Harrison had 6 tackles, and two qb hurries in 24 snaps of action. The former high school nose tackle has always been physical but hasn’t always found the ball. Saturday night was his best work especially when it came to play recognition. He played the bootleg well getting a quarterback pressure. He played straight down the line in the run game when the ball was going away from him and his play on the screen where he redirected and make the play from behind was really good awareness and recognition. Harrison was good watching it live Saturday night, but I thought he stood out even more on re-watch. Harrison had 5 tackles against Georgia as well. His 11 tackles the last two weeks comes after not recording a tackle at Kentucky. You just have to give Rodney Garner a lot of credit for his continued development of his position group.
6. Working the middle — Using the middle of the field in the passing game as not been a staple for Hendon Hooker this season but it was the promised last Saturday night. Hooker was 10 of 12 between the hashmarks for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Against Georgia he was 11 of 17 in the middle and he was 5 of 8 against Kentucky. Saturday night when South Alabama’s defensive backs started squatting on the short throws, Tennessee’s adjustment was to run square in’s and skinny posts into the middle of the field which meant touchdowns to Princeton Fant and Cedric Tillman. It was a nice counter to South Alabama’s second quarter defensive adjustment.
7. Bring it Velus — I said it a couple of weeks ago and I will say it again, if I were coaching Velus Jones he would return every kickoff if his feet weren’t in the end zone when he caught it. He’s just dynamic as a returner. He has good speed, really good vision, nice strength and patience. I just think he’s going to get to at least the 25 every time he returns a kick. He’s pretty good in the punt return game as well. Jones now has 1,443 all purpose yards in 11 games. He has 506 kickoff return yards, 222 punt return yards, and 700 receiving yards. Jones is averaging 21 yards per return (kickoff and punt). I’m all for turning him loose in the return game.
8. Pulling the right guard was effective — Tennessee ran for 74 yards on 5 carries behind left guard. Nearly all of those runs cam with a pulling guard or a pulling a tackle getting a kick out block. Both Spraggins and Dane Davis has nice kickout pulling blocks on runs. Spraggins is a very good finisher on those pulls. It was a nice effective element to Tennessee’s rushing attack that netted 250 yards and 5 touchdowns on 43 rushes.
9. Vols need Warren Burrell to get his edge back — Jalen Tolbert and Jalen Wayne are good receivers. Tolbert finished with 143 yards on 7 catches including a 68 yard fourth quarter catch and run. Wayne had 2 catches for 55 yards. South Alabama liked throwing the ball to quarterback Desmond Trotter’s left and that meant some match ups with Warren Burrell. According to PFF they threw at Burrell 4 times and had 4 completions for 105 yards. Burrell gave a big cushion on the first completion he gave up and then the Jaguar receivers bigger receivers bodied Burrell up for a couple of 50/50 balls. Burrell needs to get his confidence going. Burrell has 1 PBU since the Florida game.
10. Missed opportunity — I know this is going to sound a bit petty because Tennessee played their back up’s in the fourth quarter. I just thought they could get some younger guys on the field faster. Matthew Butler played 43 of 69 snaps including snaps in the fourth quarter. Elijah Simmons didn’t play. Da’Jon Terry had 19 snaps. Brandon Turnage got one while Theo Jackson played 56. Tamarion McDonald played 11. Jaylen McCollough played 56. Tennessee was up 35-7 at the half and 42-7 with 12 minutes to go in the third quarter. You weren’t going to lose. It was just a missed chance to play guys like William Mohan and Aaron Willis more in order for them to earn more trust. Those two got 10 total snaps combined.
