Tennessee’s Season Starts Saturday
Photo by UTSports
By Jon Reed
Tennessee is at the halfway point of their season.
They are 5-1. They’re averaging over 42 points per game on offense. The defense is giving up fewer than 11 points per game. They have the tenth best odds in the country to make the College Football Playoffs.
That’s the “glass half full” approach.
Glass half empty?
In Tennessee’s three conference games, the scoring output drops to 20.6 per game, Nico Iamaleava has accounted for one touchdown and one interception while fumbling **FIVE** times, and the offensive line “has been, ummm….good.” Wide Receiver play has left a lot to be desired, and, despite Dylan Sampson’s best efforts, the running game has not been very efficient.
But… you’re 5-1.
And you’re only a slight underdog against Alabama, a program we have chased so hard over the past twenty years with not much to show for it. Alabama, just like Tennessee and most of the other teams chasing the playoffs this season, is flawed. They’ve struggled on both offense and defense at different times. Their defense gave up 19 points in a quarter at home to Georgia and 40 to VANDERBILT. They had to have a fourth quarter comeback at home to beat South Carolina.
Alabama’s vibes should be lower than Tennessee’s.
All things considered, you’re not in that bad of a spot. But you have to take advantage of it this Saturday.
I’m not going to call it a must win game. That’s dumb. If the Vols lose to the Tide this weekend, nothing will happen to Josh Heupel. No one is getting fired, and no major players will get benched. It’s not one of those games, nor should it be.
However, a win can do so many things for Josh Heupel and his program.
Welcoming Kalen DeBoer to the rivalry with a loss immediately gives Tennessee and Heupel the upper hand. It would be a second REAL signature win. So far, it feels like 2022 against Saban and Bryce Young is the only win for Josh that truly stands the test of time. Recreating THAT party and THAT feeling would completely wash away any of the uneasiness and trepidation that the last few weeks have brought.
Because right now people have questions that aren’t getting answered.
What happened to the offense of 2022? Where are the points? Why isn’t it fast, fun or real? What’s happened to the quarterback position? Why did the WIVK people let you do that commercial? Would you have lost to Florida without the fat little dancing teenager changing the vibes?
It feels safe to consider the 2022 offense an outlier at this point. It’s not coming back. That doesn’t mean it has to suck for 60% of each game though.
The points are…….. coming? 17 in the second half against Florida felt like a nice sign. It felt like the offense, in general, had good rhythm for most of the game. The deep passes felt just a hair off. There were some good throws across the middle of the field. There was also one of the worst throws I’ve ever seen a Tennessee quarterback make on the late first half interception, too.
Even with that I thought Nico played a C+ game. I think there were some real opportunities missed on the aforementioned deep balls. Maybe more importantly to longterm success for the offense, I thought there was much more of a willingness to tuck the ball and run, something that we had all pretty universally begged for. Unfortunately, some of those were called back due to holding penalties. It didn’t exactly show up on the scoreboard, but the offense did feel pretty… close.
Nico hasn’t been close to what I thought he was going to be since getting to SEC play. You can blame it on being inexperienced. You can blame it on the O-line or WRs. Maybe it’s partly to do with the coaching. Maybe he’s just overrated.
But there’s not a very long list of Tennessee quarterbacks who are undefeated against Florida. We shouldn’t overlook that.
He’s on the list with a chance to add another big feather in his hat by beating Alabama. Casey Clausen gets called a Tennessee legend for stat lines way worse than the one Nico put up against the Gators.
I have no answers for the WIVK question. Shame on them.
Shoutout to the Fortnite dancing teenager. Credit to him for capitalizing on his opportunity and ending up on the news. Tennessee will probably even make sure he and his family are in the building this upcoming Saturday. I hope they do. It’ll be good for the vibes. I can’t give him that much credit though seeing how Heupel and the Vols are 16-1 in their last 17 games inside Neyland Stadium.
They find ways to win at home. Let’s hope they find a way to do it against Alabama. Everything in the season up until this point comes down to Saturday.