#OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE: Monitoring Tennessee Football's Improvement

by Joel Hollingsworth on Nov 22, 2011 10:01 AM EST in Tennessee Volunteer Football

Remember that first game of the season when Tennessee fumbled six times but didn't lose any of them? And we thought, uh-oh, we're going to have problems giving away the ball on running plays? Well, either that Montana game was fluky to the fluke degree or Dooley and Co. inflicted enough pain on the team to earn ball security for an entire season, because Fumbles Lost is now The Thing That 2011 Tennessee Football Does Best. We don't put the ball on the ground. We've also been treading water on the broader Turnovers Lost category, but it's not so much because we haven't been throwing interceptions but because the defense has started generating turnovers of their own. And the defense has definitely treanded upward this season and is holding steady. I'm a little perplexed that Pass Defense ranks higher than Rush Defense (#66) because it just feels like we're better against the run. Perhaps it's just a matter of the teams we've played. Anyway, here's the list of things Tennessee's doing (and done) well this season.

Categories In Which Tennessee Was In The Top Quartile This Season
Category	2010	MT	CIN	FL	BUF	GA	LSU	AL	SC	MTSU	AR	VU
Fumbles Lost	-	-	-	-	-	-	T-30	-	27	20	9	6
Kickoff Return Yardage Defense	9	14	12	21	18	13	24	11	13	12	9	10
Turnovers Lost	-	-	-	-	-	-	T-21	-	-	23	21	23
Pass Defense	-	-	-	-	-	-	24	-	24	17	23	22
First Downs Allowed	-	-	-	-	20	22	30	30	-	24	29	29
Time of Possession	90	14	5	10	5	12	-	-	-		28	30
Kickoff Returns	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	30	26	-	-
Red Zone Efficiency	104	T-7	-	-	23	17	16	9	20	27	-	-
Scoring Defense	-	-	-	-	-	29	-	-	-	28	-	-
Offense Third-down Efficiency	-	11	4	7	T-1	4	5	23	-	-	-	-
Passes Had Intercepted	-	-	-	-	T-17	T-6	21	-	-	-	-	-
Passing Efficiency	-	7	5	13	8	13	22	-	-	-	-	-
Passing Offense	30	16	9	11	11	11	25	-	-	-	-	-
Turnovers Lost	-	-	-	-	T-26	14	-	-	-	-	-	-
Defense Third-down Efficiency	-	-	-	-	-	30	-	-	-	-	-	-
Defense Fourth-down Efficiency	-	-	T-1	19	T-7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

There's also this: Tennessee is 31st in Tackles for Loss Allowed. Also odd because you'd think it would be worse for a team ranked near the bottom in rushing offense. Huh. Anyone care to posit an explanation? I'm thinking that it shows that the main problem with our running game isn't so much getting started but finishing. Too many really short runs and an almost complete lack of big plays on the ground.

And now for the Tennessee players in the top 30:

Player	Stat	MT	CIN	FL	BUF	GA	LSU	AL	SC	MTSU	AR	VU
Da'Rick Rogers	Total Receiving Yards	-	-	-	-	29	28	-	-	28	26	24
Da'Rick Rogers	Receiving Yards Per Game	-	-	-	17	23	29	-	-	-	29	26
Austin Johnson	Interceptions	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	18

Da'Rick Rogers, say hello to Austin Johnson.

#OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

Categories In Which Tennessee Is (Or Was) In The Bottom Quartile This Season
Category	2010	MT	CIN	FL	BUF	GA	LSU	AL	SC	MTSU	AR	VU
Rushing Offense	105	74	-	105	98	114	114	115	119	118	116	117
Net Punting	-	-	-	96	116	105	110	97	94	92	109	103
Punt Return Yardage Defense	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	101	103
Scoring Offense	-	27	22	-	21	-	-	-	96	96	102	101
Total Offense	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	91	102	97	96	98
First Downs	92	66	11	12	11	22	-	-	-	-	91	94
Pass Sacks	-	-	-	-	-	91	T-90	93	-	96	95	-
Passes Intercepted	-	-	-	93	111	T-113	T-116	114	109	95	94	-
Turnovers Gained	-	-	-	-	98	107	115	114	104	94	92	-
Turnover Margin	-	-	-	-	-	-	T-93	91	-	-	-	-
Red Zone Efficiency Defense	-	-	-	-	-	-	T-105	-	-	-	-	-
Fewest Yards Penalized Per Game	-	-	-	98	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fewest Penalties Per Game	-	-	-	97	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Offense Fourth Down Efficiency	96	59		94	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Punt Returns	109	64	-	91	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

So we're down to six categories in which Tennessee finds itself in the bottom quartile: Rushing Offense, Net Punting, Punt Return Yardage Defense, Scoring Offense, Total Offense, and First Downs. The latter three should auto-improve when Tyler Bray and Justin Hunter both return to join Da'Rick Rogers on the field in 2012. The punting game, well, that may only be fixed with a visit to the Colquitt Clone Farm, and Rushing Offense is the most vexing of all. Perhaps the Pistol formation is the answer. But I fear the answer is actually Vandy at home on senior night. There is no doubt that Tennessee did better on the ground against Vanderbilt, and that is indeed encouraging. It's hard to register a lot of movement in the national season-long rankings with a single game, but it was better. How much better, I'm just not sure yet.

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Comments

Sadly

insofar as fumble recoveries are one of the most random things out there, this might imply we’ve been lucky this year.

the counterpoint is that a lot of those fumbles that we haven’t lost (we have what? 18 fumbles and 5 lost?) have been muffed kickoff returns, which are very rarely lost.

Heel for school, Vol for life!

Bolts, Preds, Canes (childhood team, home state team, hometown team). Canes mini-STH. Southern hockey solidarity!

by Incipient_Senescence on Nov 22, 2011 10:41 AM EST reply actions

Vandy is 4th in the SEC in run defense

We talked about this a bunch on the podcast last night – could be that they just really weren’t ready for the pistol, could be that it gave Tauren Poole an extra split second to see a hole, could be lots of things…but that wasn’t a terrible run defense we moved the ball on.

Rocky Top Talk

by Will Shelton on Nov 22, 2011 12:29 PM EST reply actions

could be our run game is finally trending towards showing some life

as you pointed out it is too late for improvement to reflect in YTD standings, but we should focus on the trend line. Next year we’ll have a bigger, healthier and more experience Marlin Lane plus an o-line that is finally starting to fire off the LOS and getting to the second level and doing some damage.

by phil g on Nov 22, 2011 2:29 PM EST reply actions

I don't really see the pistol as the explanation for an improved running game.

Hearing CDD talk about it, and from what I could see, the running game didn’t actually change with the pistol. It looked like literally the only difference was Bray wasn’t under center.

For all intents and purposes, the defense could have treated that like Bray being under center and defended it accordingly.

"Do the Titans have a miracle left in them in what has been a magical season to this point? If they do, they need it now. Christie kicks it high and short. Gonna be fielded by Lorenzo Neal at the 25; he dishes it back to Wycheck; he throws it across the field to Dyson. 30, 40, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, endzone...touchdown, Titans! There are no flags on the field! It's a miracle! Tennessee has pulled a miracle! A miracle for the Titans!"

by TennesseeTyrants on Nov 22, 2011 4:59 PM EST reply actions

It does seem like you could disguise run/pass plays better from the pistol

But it limits your ability to run stretch plays where the QB has to reach to get the RB who’s taking a hard angle to the outside zone.

by phil g on Nov 22, 2011 8:02 PM EST up reply actions

I could see the pistol disguising the run/pass plays better, if that's how the offense wanted to use it.

But the Vols can pass from under center when they want to, and it looked to me like they just ran their under-center offense from the pistol, rather than adding in wrinkles.

I guess what I’m getting at is, I credit the improved running game to much improved offensive line play and Tauren playing a good game. Not any magic that happens when Tyler Bray takes two steps backwards. haha

But you’re right, it does kind of rule out stretch plays and similar stuff.

by TennesseeTyrants on Nov 22, 2011 11:51 PM EST up reply actions