When Josh Heupel was hired seven months ago, there was a fair amount of skepticism about the hire. There was also a fair amount of intrigue on what a Tennessee offense might look like after a desperately needed offensive makeover with an offensive minded head coach who loves to push the tempo.
The offensive side of the ball couldn’t have been worse or more boring under the Jeremy Pruitt regime which featured the highest paid offensive coordinator in the country calling the shots. To say the bar has been set low would be an understatement considering how bad the offensive numbers were and how talented some of the skill position players were.
So during the first game of Josh Heupel’s Volunteer coaching career, it was fair to expect an explosive offensive performance against one of the worst teams in the FBS. After the first two possessions, it looked like this offense might be the greatest and most electric unit to grace a football field since last year’s Alabama team (slight hyperbole).
The first drive saw 12 plays, 66 yards, no huddles and less than three minutes before the Vols found the end zone on a Joe Milton TD rush. 5.5 yards per play is good and despite the lack of monster plays, Milton looked efficient, completing four of five passes for 26 yards and dictating the tempo of the offense.
The second drive was similar: eight plays, 67 yards, zero huddles, two minutes and one second of offense was needed to get the Vols into the end zone once again. Milton completed an efficient three of four passes and this time, for 42 yards to lead the drive that resulted in a Jabari Small touchdown run.
So to recap these electric first drives: 20 plays, 133 yards, 6.65 yards per play and only five minutes of game action, a third of the quarter. Starts to feel like ’98 huh?
*Lee Corso yells “Not so fast my friend! in the distance*
The rest of the half would get ugly, like 2020 Vols offense ugly. The second quarter saw the Vols go three and out twice, run seven plays and only gain eight total yards and of course, zero points. Hard to score if you can’t move the ball.
The Vols leaned heavily on the run game in the second half as Jabari Small’s 114 yards on 23 carries and Tiyon Evans’ 116 yards on 16 carries propelled the offense and helped put the game comfortably out of reach despite Milton completing only one of nine passes for 40 yards.
But the focus goes back to Joe Milton. Some missed throws, hesitant decision making and some over throws where it seemed more like an exhibition of arm strength during a Punt, Pass and Kick competition. These were the same knocks on him that he had during his time at Michigan. Flat deep ball, holds on to the ball too long, questionable decision making etc. And yes, I saw the cool 40-yard bomb to Cedric Tillman who made an incredible one-on-one play to Moss his defender and make a catch. I hate to be “That Guy”, but a hanging Hail Mary like that, against competent secondaries, probably doesn’t result in six points.
What we saw was the same Joe Milton from Michigan: some glimpses of incredible arm talent followed by head scratching, frustrating plays. If there is any game to get this out of the system, it’s this one, against a really really bad Bowling Green State team that gave up 45 points per game last year in a five-game MAC-only schedule.
I understand the frustration from Vols fans and the negative reaction to the season opener. A 38-6 win that should’ve been a 66-6 win with some high flying, sexy offensive highlights from the new offensive guru of a head coach that helped make Drew Lock an NFL starter. But the sexy plays and highlights didn’t occur in the passing game and there were way too many three-and-outs and misplaced passes. You expect to Tennessee to run all over the BGSU defense, you should reasonably expect the passing attack to do the same, but it didn’t after the first two drives, the honeymoon drives, as I’ll call them.
After those drives, the Heupel’s fast paced, up-tempo offense was like putting lip stick on a pig. Yeah, they went three-and-out a ton during the game, but did it so fast, that you could’ve missed the whole thing in the blink of an eye. It was ugly.
However, this passing game futility still shouldn’t be the biggest takeaway, nor should the defense and rushing attack beating up on a helpless and inferior opponent. That title should be reserved for the “we still know as much about this team as we did in February” take.
The expectation was for this offense to play faster, it did. The expectation was for their to be more shots down the field, there were a few. But we still can’t gauge how this offense will look in October through November. There is a ton of football to played and a ton of stuff to be figured out. There are still two sides to the Joe Milton coin that need to be straightened out into a more consistent product. This is the biggest challenge of Josh Heupel’s career so far and there is certainly a ton to correct after week one but at the end of the day, we still know nothing about how this offense is going to look this year. It can be fun at times, it can be an absolute train wreck at times, it can be the world’s fastest train wreck too, all within the span of one half. But that unpredictable and wild variable is what will make 2021 a fascinating and unpredictable season for the new look Big Orange Offense.
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