KNOXVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 20, 2020 – Head Coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers during practice on Haslam Field in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics
The Tennessee fanbase really didn’t have a lot of hope going into the Alabama game on Saturday. Twitter blew up prior to the game when Jeremy Pruitt announced that Jarrett Guarantano would be the starting quarterback.
Today proved to the fanbase that Tennessee makes playing offense so hard. The first seven plays of the game were runs, which resulted in two three-and-outs. In the first half, the coaching staff proved that they have no balls and are scared. With 58 seconds remaining in the first half, Jim Chaney called two runs and one deep threat. The Vols had all three timeouts left, what was there to lose?
Granted, Guarantano is not the answer but it’s Pruitt and Chaney whp keep putting faith in a guy that they won’t even let him throw the ball. We’ve talked about the team giving up last week against Kentucky but it’s obvious that this coaching staff has given up on the team. The gameplan for Alabama didn’t even appear that they wanted to win. It was more of the mindset, “let’s just get through the game.”
Prime example: Alabama WR Slade Bolden fumbled around midfield and after Tennessee regained possession, Chaney decided to run the ball on 3rd and 8 which resulted in a punt. Pruitt has to be the most stubborn coach in America but Chaney didn’t draw up a single creative play the entire game that showed he cared about winning.
Understandably, firing Chaney would be really pricey, considering the university is paying him $1.5M/year, but at this point does it even matter? You can’t except a team to win when you’re not putting them in a position to win. Chaney’s ancient play calling puts Tennessee in horrible position to even look like a functioning offense.
You can put blame on Guarantano for why they won’t open the playbook up but that comes down to coaching for starting him. Of course you, the reader, may be mad because you’ll see that Guarantano threw two touchdowns and no interceptions. That’s very deceiving considering the game plan wasn’t centered around winning.
The gameplan seemed more centered around getting to the bye week. So hopefully after the Vols go back to being national champions of the practice field, we’ll have some players develop into stars that can make games less painful to watch the rest of the season.
Also, please let Tee Martin take over play-calling duties against Arkansas.
