Any time Tennessee gained 15 yards on a play, it felt like heaven and earth had been moved to make it happen.
Any time Florida gained 15 yards on a play, it felt more like Thanos snapping his fingers.
That was an inescapable feeling for most of the Gators’ 31-19, SEC-East-clinching win over the Vols on Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
A couple of garbage-time touchdowns from Tennessee gave the final score a more aesthetically pleasing appeal than it deserved. Anyone who watched the entire game knew the real story, though. As soon as Florida scored touchdowns late in the second quarter and early in the third quarter and built a 24-7 lead, that game was home and hosed.
The Vols played hard. They should always play hard, so let’s not line ‘em up for medals or anything, but it’s worth nothing that at least 16-18 of them didn’t practice at all the past two weeks with COVID-19 quarantine issues, and they’re a team on a long losing streak, but they’re still playing hard. With very few exceptions, they have not quit on themselves, their teammates or their coaches. That means something. It doesn’t mean everything — not even close — but it does mean something.
Ultimately, though, Saturday’s game felt like a big schoolyard bully putting his palm on the head of a smaller classmate who couldn’t reach far enough to hit back. Tennessee swam upstream the entire day, and any time Florida really needed to do something, it did something.
Tennessee’s defense played much better than I expected against Florida. Let’s not pretend the Gators were taking it easy on the Vols. Florida is playing to impress the College Football Playoff committee, and it’s trying to make Kyle Trask the school’s fourth Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback. And any time the Gators get a chance to toss a little dirt in Tennessee’s eyes, they’re happy to do it.
Florida did a lot of damage through the air — 433 yards, to be exact — but it couldn’t run the ball at Tennessee. The Gators finished with just 19 yards on 17 carries, and at least 25 rushing yards came on end arounds or reverses to wide receivers. In other words, Florida’s main rushing attack went backwards against the Vols. Had Tennessee completely capitulated, the Gators would have had much more success on the ground. Tennessee played tough all day against the run. As bad as these Vols are in some areas, you can’t just line up and run over them. They’re too tough and too proud for that.
The Gators had a season-low 6.8 yards per play Saturday. That’s still more yards per play than you ever want to allow, but considering the caliber of the opposing offense, that’s OK.
If Tennessee had an offense, it could have been an interesting game.
But Tennessee doesn’t have an offense.
In the Year Of Our Lord 2020, when so many teams are putting up video-game statistics on a weekly basis, Tennessee doesn’t have an offense. And that means Tennessee has virtually no chance of consistently being competitive against good teams. And that means Tennessee remains average at best, and spinning-wheels-in-the-mud at worst.
More than 60 of the 127 NCAA Division I FBS programs playing football this season average more than 30 points per game. Tennessee barely averages 20.
More than 60 teams in FBS football average more than 400 yards of total offense per game. Tennessee averages less than 340.
More than 50 teams average more than 250 passing yards per game. Tennessee averages less than 185.
Just 22 teams in college football average fewer passing yards per game than Tennessee, and many of those teams have old-school offenses designed to keep the ball on the ground. Tennessee, nominally, has a balanced offense. It would like to do more through the air. It just doesn’t.
Every team can’t have a Kyle Trask and a Kyle Pitts, a Mac Jones and a Devonta Smith or a Trevor Lawrence and an Amari Rodgers. Those are special duos, and you can’t expect every program to have something like that on an annual basis. But there are lots of teams in college football who don’t have duos like that and still find ways to consistently move the ball and put points on the board. Tennessee’s inability to do that is incredibly frustrating, and that has to happen for Jeremy Pruitt to get this program to the next level.
Tennessee has again played with nearly a handful of quarterbacks this season, and the Vols have again been deficient offensively. Things have gotten even worse without Jauan Jennings or Marquez Callaway to bail out those quarterbacks this season.
Going into games with this Tennessee offense is something akin to taking the field with one arm tied behind your back. No matter how well you play defensively, at some point the dam will probably burst, and these Vols are cooked as soon as that happens. The final minutes of the first half and first few minutes of the second half served as Saturday’s there-it-goes moment. But it was going to happen at some point. Anyone who has watched Tennessee play this season knew it was going to happen at some point.
We could spend hours discussing the fine details of every little thing the Vols could improve. But what’s the point? None of that matters until Tennessee gets better at quarterback or a hell of lot better literally every other place on offense.
Is Harrison Bailey that guy? I don’t know. But his first start was nothing special. It was his first start, and it came against Florida, so grading on a curve is fine. But he didn’t exactly set the world ablaze. He didn’t make any huge mistakes, but he missed a few opportunities for big plays, and those things matter when you’re playing a team like Florida and you know you need to score in the 30s to have any chance of winning.
Sophomore J.T. Shrout finished Saturday’s game, and his solid performance will only muddy the waters even more moving forward. It was garbage time, but Florida was still blitzing and playing hard, and Shrout completed 12 of 14 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown and made some good decisions to tuck and run when needed. If Shrout could ever learn to consistently make good decisions with the ball, his arm talent could change this quarterback situation in a hurry. But will that happen? Who would make that bet?
Much maligned senior Jarrett Guarantano will return to practice next week, and he’ll be a factor in Tennessee’s quarterback derby until he leaves the program, whether it’s after this season or next. No one wants to hear that, but it’s true. Guarantano probably would have connected on some of the passes Bailey missed in the first half. Of course, who knows what else Guarantano would have done. That’s the problem there. But we all know that. Everyone in college football knows that by now.
Then there’s sophomore Brian Maurer, who made a few brief cameos against Florida, mostly to change the pace and offer the Vols a more dynamic runner at the quarterback spot. Maurer remains such an interesting player because of his dynamic abilities but complete inability to harness them.
Will touted signee Kaidon Salter add something new to the group starting next season? Tennessee better hope he does.
Regardless, Tennessee needs to scour the transfer market for help in that spot. The Vols aren’t good enough there. The coaching at that position needs to be evaluated, as well. But that’s obvious, right?
Shrout’s performance at the end of Saturday’s game served as the most recent proof of an argument I’ve made all season. Tennessee isn’t a bad football team. Tennessee is a decent football team being dragged down by poor quarterback play. You might say that means Tennessee is a bad football team, and I can’t prove that wrong, but I do think there’s a difference. If you just dropped an average quarterback into this offense, so many things would look so much better.
I’m operating under the assumption that Pruitt will be back at Tennessee next season until I have reason to feel otherwise, but obviously things need to change in this program, and they need to change in a hurry. Everything this program is doing, especially on offense, needs to improve. Tennessee can’t continue to perform like this and expect results to change.
"like this" - Google News
December 06, 2020 at 12:36PM
https://ift.tt/33QcYbn
Rucker: Tennessee can't compete playing offense like this - 247Sports
"like this" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MWhj4t
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment