Upon the re-watch of Tennessee’s 38-6 win over Bowling Green to open the 2021 season. Here’s 10 things I think I know.
1. Offense didn’t handle adversity well — Everything for this offense looked easy the first two drives, then it got ugly after a flag and and injury. Tennessee opened the game with 170 yards of offense and 2 touchdowns on 24 snaps (7 yards a play).
On their third possession, they were moving again till Darnell Wright was flagged for holding. After their first penalty and adversity of the day, the offense got suck in the mud. They had just 9 yards on 10 snaps after the penalty and of the 9 snaps 7 were for zero or minus yards.
Also, the injury to Cooper Mays derailed the offense as in watching the replay it took Jerome Carvin some snaps to adjust to playing center.
Josh Heupel talked all pre-season about do everything he can to put his team in adverse situations He scrimmaged in the rain, made random penalties and substitutions to try and simulate a game. Thursday when the offense had their first negative play it affected them way too much.
2. Milton has to see the field better — There were a couple of times where Milton when through his progressions well then there were times where he didn’t and missed some open receivers. On Cedric Tillman’s touchdown catch, that was the worst place to throw the ball. Milton had Hyatt open in the middle of the field, he had a running back open in the flat and he could have run the ball instead of trying to force the ball into Tillman. He got away with it but it wasn’t the right choice in his progression.
Milton said on Friday after watching the film he would give himself a C- noting he held the ball too long and didn’t trust himself to let it go.
Staying in a rhythm or the inability to do so was some of the criticism of Milton when he was at Michigan. Thursday night, the first penalty and then the early second quarter drop from Hyatt seemed to knock him out of that elusive rhythm.
3. The defensive line is better — You have to put a qualifier on things. Bowling Green was starting a freshman walk-on at center and a tackle who was playing defense less than a month ago. Tennessee’s defensive front should have made plays and they did. That group had 5 TFL’s, 3 batted balls and 3 quarterback hurries. Rodney Garner played 11 different guys and they showed up. It will obviously get much more difficult next Saturday and beyond, but this group is improving. Caleb Tremblay was really solid upon rewatch. Elijah Simmons has all kind of potential, but has to lose weight to be able to play more snaps and be more effective. Latrell Bumphus looked rusty, but will be fine. Bottom line is that group had a nice opening night against an offensive line that they should have had a good night against. They challenge for them now is how much can they improve throughout the season and how much better will they be when Byron Young gets to play. Only time will tell, but that group has come a million miles since spring practice.
4. Props to Ollie Lane — I didn’t see him being the first lineman off the bench if they had an injury on the offensive interior. I thought they would play Dayne Davis at tackle and slide Cade Mays inside, but Lane got the call and got better through the game. As he told me, Friday he plenty that needs to be corrected, but he did alright. One thing upon rewatch is that he never appeared to be confused and didn’t appear to have any big missed assignments.
Lane was by no means dominant but this system doesn’t ask the guards to be road graders. He need where to go and was ready when called upon. We will see how Cooper Mays progresses this week from an ugly looking ankle injury and if Lane will get the first team work or if they go a different direction against Pittsburgh if Mays can’t go.
5. Hello Theo Jackson — I thought the secondary would be one of the most improved if not the most improved unit on the team. I didn’t know that Theo Jackson would be the guy who showed out the most in week one. Jackson was aggressive. He read things very well and was really good around the line of scrimmage. Jackson finished with a career high 11 tackles including two for loss in playing the most important and most difficult position in the secondary.
Jackson and the secondary was far from perfect particularly in the second quarter where they had some confusion on a couple of route combinations. But that unit led by Jackson was confident and wasn’t afraid to get up and challenge receivers.
That challenge is very different this week against Pittsburgh’s passing attack led by Kenny Pickett who will throw it vertical in a big time way something Bowling Green didn’t even attempt to do.
Will this secondary stay aggressive in man to man coverage. How improve will that group be against a much more aggressive passing attack?
But give credit where credit is due, Theo Jackson played really well in week one.
6. I get it with Tyion Evans — Evans is interesting. He was hurt in spring and frankly wasn’t the toughest or most committed guy. He signed here without ever seeing the school and he signed for a different coaching staff so the adjustment in spring was just that an adjustment. But this summer, a switch flipped for Evans and he had a great off-season. Everyone in the program acknowledged it. Thursday night he show his skills. Evans showed patience and he showed really good feet as well. He was solid in pass protection and is definitely not just the bigger power back.
Days will get harder as defensive fronts get stronger, but I liked what I saw live and then in re-watching the game, I liked Evans’ play even more.
7. Another tight end must develop quickly — Princeton Fant had one catch and Milton missed him wide open a couple of other times, but Fant did a lot of other unnoticed things. Fant is key for the offense in a lot of ways. This offense ask a lot of the tight end position. They want the tight end to be the lead blocker on inside runs, outside runs as well as shifts and motions.
Jacob Warren is the second tight end and played some. Tennessee didn’t play Miles Campbell or any other tight end. As the season moves forward, Alex Golesh must find Princeton Fant some help.
8. Linebacker rotation was interesting — Tennessee went from no depth in at linebacker to having some numbers in that room and Thursday night they certainly wanted to get a look at everyone as they rotation heavily at linebacker playing Juan Mitchell, Jeremy Banks, Aaron Beasley, and Solon Page III in the first half.
Mitchell was not credited with a tackle. Banks was credited with 3 including a tackle for loss. Beasley had 3 including a half tackle for loss. Page was also credited with 3 tackles.
I think Mitchell and Banks are the top two linebackers and I would expect them to get the bulk of the work on Saturday against Pitt but it was an interesting rotation for sure. And I was surprised on rewatch by the lack of production by Mitchell.
9. Receiver is hard to know — I thought Velus Jones and Javonta Payton would have bigger numbers. Clearly Tillman and Hyatt were Milton’s top two targets on the night, but when you are 2 for 12 throwing the ball over a three quarter span it’s hard to know kind of where they are at receiver. Jimmy Holiday played very little and Andison Coby did as well.
But the biggest surprise was the lack of targets for Jones. One of the concerns about the receiver group is their ability to get open against press coverage. There were times where they were running wide open and Milton missed them. There were some other times where they didn’t seem to create separation.
That’s why you heard Heupel after the game be critical of the entire passing game and not just Milton. Milton struggled, yes, but so did the receivers at times.
Milton obviously has to take a big step forward this week, but the receivers must play better as well.
10. First downs is the most important stat — Going fast is a weapon for an offense. It can gas a defense for sure. And in the first quarter it did just that as it did in the third quarter as well. But the whole key to this offense working is making first downs.
I knew that going in, but the second quarter upon rewatch reminded me that number of first downs is the key stat for this offense.
BONUS — So I’m getting ready for the Big Orange Countdown pre-game show with Jayson Swain and Chris Brown. The VolWalk is over and I look up and Mike Ekeler is walking into the crowd of fans who are outside gate 21. I asked him if he was lost and he smiled no. Ekeler had a hat in his hands that he had gotta a few players to sign and was looking for a young fan to give it to which he did. Ekeler said it’s something he has done for years as a part of his pre-game routine. Of course a couple hours later, he split his head open against a players helmet celebrating.
1. Offense didn’t handle adversity well — Everything for this offense looked easy the first two drives, then it got ugly after a flag and and injury. Tennessee opened the game with 170 yards of offense and 2 touchdowns on 24 snaps (7 yards a play).
On their third possession, they were moving again till Darnell Wright was flagged for holding. After their first penalty and adversity of the day, the offense got suck in the mud. They had just 9 yards on 10 snaps after the penalty and of the 9 snaps 7 were for zero or minus yards.
Also, the injury to Cooper Mays derailed the offense as in watching the replay it took Jerome Carvin some snaps to adjust to playing center.
Josh Heupel talked all pre-season about do everything he can to put his team in adverse situations He scrimmaged in the rain, made random penalties and substitutions to try and simulate a game. Thursday when the offense had their first negative play it affected them way too much.
2. Milton has to see the field better — There were a couple of times where Milton when through his progressions well then there were times where he didn’t and missed some open receivers. On Cedric Tillman’s touchdown catch, that was the worst place to throw the ball. Milton had Hyatt open in the middle of the field, he had a running back open in the flat and he could have run the ball instead of trying to force the ball into Tillman. He got away with it but it wasn’t the right choice in his progression.
Milton said on Friday after watching the film he would give himself a C- noting he held the ball too long and didn’t trust himself to let it go.
Staying in a rhythm or the inability to do so was some of the criticism of Milton when he was at Michigan. Thursday night, the first penalty and then the early second quarter drop from Hyatt seemed to knock him out of that elusive rhythm.
3. The defensive line is better — You have to put a qualifier on things. Bowling Green was starting a freshman walk-on at center and a tackle who was playing defense less than a month ago. Tennessee’s defensive front should have made plays and they did. That group had 5 TFL’s, 3 batted balls and 3 quarterback hurries. Rodney Garner played 11 different guys and they showed up. It will obviously get much more difficult next Saturday and beyond, but this group is improving. Caleb Tremblay was really solid upon rewatch. Elijah Simmons has all kind of potential, but has to lose weight to be able to play more snaps and be more effective. Latrell Bumphus looked rusty, but will be fine. Bottom line is that group had a nice opening night against an offensive line that they should have had a good night against. They challenge for them now is how much can they improve throughout the season and how much better will they be when Byron Young gets to play. Only time will tell, but that group has come a million miles since spring practice.
4. Props to Ollie Lane — I didn’t see him being the first lineman off the bench if they had an injury on the offensive interior. I thought they would play Dayne Davis at tackle and slide Cade Mays inside, but Lane got the call and got better through the game. As he told me, Friday he plenty that needs to be corrected, but he did alright. One thing upon rewatch is that he never appeared to be confused and didn’t appear to have any big missed assignments.
Lane was by no means dominant but this system doesn’t ask the guards to be road graders. He need where to go and was ready when called upon. We will see how Cooper Mays progresses this week from an ugly looking ankle injury and if Lane will get the first team work or if they go a different direction against Pittsburgh if Mays can’t go.
5. Hello Theo Jackson — I thought the secondary would be one of the most improved if not the most improved unit on the team. I didn’t know that Theo Jackson would be the guy who showed out the most in week one. Jackson was aggressive. He read things very well and was really good around the line of scrimmage. Jackson finished with a career high 11 tackles including two for loss in playing the most important and most difficult position in the secondary.
Jackson and the secondary was far from perfect particularly in the second quarter where they had some confusion on a couple of route combinations. But that unit led by Jackson was confident and wasn’t afraid to get up and challenge receivers.
That challenge is very different this week against Pittsburgh’s passing attack led by Kenny Pickett who will throw it vertical in a big time way something Bowling Green didn’t even attempt to do.
Will this secondary stay aggressive in man to man coverage. How improve will that group be against a much more aggressive passing attack?
But give credit where credit is due, Theo Jackson played really well in week one.
6. I get it with Tyion Evans — Evans is interesting. He was hurt in spring and frankly wasn’t the toughest or most committed guy. He signed here without ever seeing the school and he signed for a different coaching staff so the adjustment in spring was just that an adjustment. But this summer, a switch flipped for Evans and he had a great off-season. Everyone in the program acknowledged it. Thursday night he show his skills. Evans showed patience and he showed really good feet as well. He was solid in pass protection and is definitely not just the bigger power back.
Days will get harder as defensive fronts get stronger, but I liked what I saw live and then in re-watching the game, I liked Evans’ play even more.
7. Another tight end must develop quickly — Princeton Fant had one catch and Milton missed him wide open a couple of other times, but Fant did a lot of other unnoticed things. Fant is key for the offense in a lot of ways. This offense ask a lot of the tight end position. They want the tight end to be the lead blocker on inside runs, outside runs as well as shifts and motions.
Jacob Warren is the second tight end and played some. Tennessee didn’t play Miles Campbell or any other tight end. As the season moves forward, Alex Golesh must find Princeton Fant some help.
8. Linebacker rotation was interesting — Tennessee went from no depth in at linebacker to having some numbers in that room and Thursday night they certainly wanted to get a look at everyone as they rotation heavily at linebacker playing Juan Mitchell, Jeremy Banks, Aaron Beasley, and Solon Page III in the first half.
Mitchell was not credited with a tackle. Banks was credited with 3 including a tackle for loss. Beasley had 3 including a half tackle for loss. Page was also credited with 3 tackles.
I think Mitchell and Banks are the top two linebackers and I would expect them to get the bulk of the work on Saturday against Pitt but it was an interesting rotation for sure. And I was surprised on rewatch by the lack of production by Mitchell.
9. Receiver is hard to know — I thought Velus Jones and Javonta Payton would have bigger numbers. Clearly Tillman and Hyatt were Milton’s top two targets on the night, but when you are 2 for 12 throwing the ball over a three quarter span it’s hard to know kind of where they are at receiver. Jimmy Holiday played very little and Andison Coby did as well.
But the biggest surprise was the lack of targets for Jones. One of the concerns about the receiver group is their ability to get open against press coverage. There were times where they were running wide open and Milton missed them. There were some other times where they didn’t seem to create separation.
That’s why you heard Heupel after the game be critical of the entire passing game and not just Milton. Milton struggled, yes, but so did the receivers at times.
Milton obviously has to take a big step forward this week, but the receivers must play better as well.
10. First downs is the most important stat — Going fast is a weapon for an offense. It can gas a defense for sure. And in the first quarter it did just that as it did in the third quarter as well. But the whole key to this offense working is making first downs.
I knew that going in, but the second quarter upon rewatch reminded me that number of first downs is the key stat for this offense.
BONUS — So I’m getting ready for the Big Orange Countdown pre-game show with Jayson Swain and Chris Brown. The VolWalk is over and I look up and Mike Ekeler is walking into the crowd of fans who are outside gate 21. I asked him if he was lost and he smiled no. Ekeler had a hat in his hands that he had gotta a few players to sign and was looking for a young fan to give it to which he did. Ekeler said it’s something he has done for years as a part of his pre-game routine. Of course a couple hours later, he split his head open against a players helmet celebrating.
