With all the struggles Tennessee had running the ball on Georgia, I decided to see if I could figure out where everything went wrong.  All of the yards gained on the play-by-play stats is taken directly from the game log.  Below is the video of all the running plays and each run is tagged.

Continue reading this post »

KNOXVILLE, TN – Jonathan Crompton's, (JCR, Tennessee 11) stock was in a freefall today, a move precipitated when his coaching staff rejected his bailout plan. The move was caused by news Sunday night that Philip Fulmer (head coach of the University of Tennessee) planned on splitting practice time between Crompton and Nick Stephens (NST, Tennessee 2-Deep). Crompton subsequently stated, “I'm still going to be the guy,” which did nothing to quell the fear of the sellers early Monday morning when the market opened.

Continue reading this post »

After watching the debacle that was our defensive performance against Alabama I decided to punish myself and go back and watch the tape to see exactly what went wrong.  I was hoping to see that only one or two things were wrong so that I could have hope that the defense could be fixed.  I wound up closely watching about the first two-thirds of Tennessee's defensive snaps.  After reviewing the game, I have decided that any decent offense will put up a lot of points against Tennessee unless the players improve and serious changes are made in our defensive scheme.  While watching the game live the defense looked bad, in slow-motion it was even worse.  The weaknesses of the three groups on defense (DL, LB, DB) work together to amplify the crappiness of the defense.

Defensive Backs:

This group definitely performed the worst on Saturday.  Blown coverages and allowing huge cushions for the receivers plagued the group all game long.  (Though, I would assume the huge cushions were by the coaches design) While I think he has a very bright future for the Vols, Eric Berry is not playing well right now.  He seems to do much better playing the run than the pass.  The long pass to DJ Hall on the second drive of the game was mostly his fault and shows his weakness in coverage.  Vinson was playing outside technique and expecting safety help.  Berry, however, bit on a playfake and Vinson got called for pass interference.  Berry consistently got out of position when he had a deep zone.  The other defensive backs obviously had their problems as well, but Berry's stood out the most. However, his backup Parrish was the nickel back in the game and played about as badly, so he is not an upgrade

Linebackers:

Watching this group perform it is apparent that they are selling out to stop the run.  Alabama ran a playfake on most of the snaps when Wilson was under center and the linebackers attacked the line virtually every time.  I could understand this happening if Alabama was running the ball more or they were good playfakes, but that was not the case.  The most disheartening aspect was the poor quality of the playfakes that were working for Alabama.  Wilson would barely even stick the ball past his body and the linebackers would get at least two yards closer to the line of scrimmage leaving huge windows underneath the defensive backs.  The misreads on playaction seem to be this groups major problem, but it is disturbing the lack of big plays that this group makes.  They were supposed to be the strength of the team, at this point to call them anything above average would be false.

Defensive Line:

For the most part the line never had a chance to get to Wilson in this game.  There were a few plays where he stood in the pocket, but on the whole, the ball was out of his hand whenever he completed his drop.  When he entered the shotgun he would usually take two steps and the ball was already out of his hand.  Against the run, the line seemed to be in good position but would not finish the play when they had the chance, allowing the running backs extra yards.  This unit definitely needs to get more pressure on the quarterback when it has the chance, but I would still say they played the best of any unit on the field.  The two best defensive players for the Vols were both on the line, Bolden and Mitchell.  I did not see either of these two do anything wrong, which puts them ahead of the rest of their teammates and were both able to make a couple of good plays on run defense.  

Specifics  

Robert Ayres had a horrible game.  One of his plays in particular was horrendous and allowed a 26 yard run.  Alabama came out with one RB and both tight ends on one side of the field.  At the snap Ayres stands straight up and goes inside of the play.  (I have no idea why he would do this because it does not appear to be a twist with the DT and  I do not believe we would have called one because it was first and ten.)  Because Ayres takes himself out of the play, the tackle gets a free release on Mayo and he never has a chance.  McCoy makes a good play and gets off the Center blocking him and would be able to make the play for about a seven yard gain.  But, due the fact no one ever had to block Ayres there is an extra blocker (the other TE) able to get a piece of him preventing him from making the tackle.  The defensive backs then have to run the RB down.  On the very next play Ayres has contain and allows the running back to get around him for a gain of 8 yards.  

Overall:

Each unit in the passing game worked to magnify the weaknesses of the others.  Our coaches do not believe that our defensive backs are able to play press coverage or man-to-man.  The huge cushions our defensive backs were giving the receivers necessitate the linebackers getting deep drops to force the quarterback to throw over them allowing the DBs a chance to make up ground.  This did not occur due to the linebackers falling for playaction continuously.  Tennessee's line is not good enough to get to the quarterback without him looking around downfield.  Wilson was able to release the ball as soon as he finished his drop due to the huge cushions granted his receivers.  

Alabama's Scheme:  

Alabama obviously picked up several of the tendencies Tennessee showed against Georgia.  Whereas Georgia came out trying to run the ball; Alabama came out passing.  Tennessee showed against the Dawgs that they would sellout to stop the run on early downs and the Crimson Tide took advantage of it by using playaction with great success.  Alabama also did a great job of overloading the Tennessee zones when they spread the field.  They would usually bring a man in motion, which would allow them to make sure it was zone, and have two men run routes on either side of a linebacker.

Outlook:  

Tennessee tried blitzing at various times during the game with no success.  Wilson was able to make the correct read and get rid of the ball before the blitzers were able to get there.  The ease at which Alabama was able to pick up and diagnose the blitz leads me to believe that Tennessee is very predictable in where and how they will blitz.  I believe that Tennessee's coaches are going to have to make a decision in how they want to scheme on defense.  After watching the tape it is apparent that Tennessee is going to be forced to change their strategy.  The coaches must decide to decide to give up something on defense, because the Vols are not good enough to take everything away.  Either they have the linebackers drop deeper and give up running yardage or have everyone around the line of scrimmage, blitzing heavily and hope our defensive backs are not beat deep.  I feel that the best chance for success against South Carolina will be for Tennessee to stack the line of scrimmage and hope our cornerbacks can hold up in coverage.  Alabama showed that if you spread Tennessee out there will be huge passing lanes that will make an average quarterback look extraordinary.  The Vols should force the Gamecocks quarterbacks to show that they have the ability to throw the ball with pressure in their face.  With the scheme Tennessee showed last week any Division I quarterback should be able to throw the ball.  With a pressure scheme we should at least be able to stuff the run.  Whatever Tennessee decides to do; the linebackers cannot be attacking the line of scrimmage while the defensive backs give huge cushions on the outside.  If this happens it will be a very long night at Neyland Stadium.

Continue reading this post »

I know very little about Southern Mississippi and I figured most readers were uniformed as well.  So I pulled out the Phil Steele and put together this preview of the Golden Eagles.  I hope this helps people out and if it well received I would be happy to do another one for a future opponent.

Southern Mississippi comes into Knoxville off a 35-13 win over UT-Martin.  They always seem to play BCS conference teams tough and occasionally pull out the victory, such as their win over Alabama in 2000 and Nebraska in 2004.  The last time the two faced each other USM hung in the entire game with the Vols edging out a 19-16 victory.  Last year they played both Florida and Virginia Tech in lopsided games.  However, they only trailed Florida by seven late in the third quarter and had outgained Virginia Tech at the half.  

Defense

The Golden Eagles have an excellent front seven returning with all of their starting linebackers back and the majority of their defensive line rotation.  The weakness of the defense should be the secondary with two new cornerbacks.  Last year they allowed 3.9 ypc and should improve on that number this year.  The run defense did struggle at times allowing Tulsa and Virginia Tech to run at will.  The pass defense allowed a respectable 180 ypg.  As was the case with the rush defense the better passing teams were able to have good days throwing the ball with both Florida and Houston doing well.

Offense
Southern Miss returns their leading rusher, passer and receiver.  Last year they had an excellent run game with true freshman Damion Fletcher leading the way with 1338 yards and 11 touchdowns.  Their leading receiver was TE Shawn Nelson who should have a very good year.  The quarterback is Jeremy Young who was adequate after taking over the starting job.  Only two starting offensive lineman return from an excellent unit.  Both starting tackles are back with two other lineman having had playing time.  The unit will probably not perform up to last year's standard but should be competent.

Special Teams

The only notable thing to mention is that their punter is named Britt Barefoot who I am guessing does not actually punt barefoot, although I wish he did.  

Last Week

The Golden Eagles had an easy victory over the Skyhawks.  They were able to run at will with Fletcher rushing for 156 yards and averaging 8.6 yards per carry.  The passing game struggled with Young completing less than 50% of his passes.   The defense stopped the run but did allow some yards through the air. Barefoot had an excellent game punting the ball for a net average of 44.5 yards.  The kicker did miss his only field goal try of 42 yards.  

Outlook

Tennessee's main concern entering this game should be stopping the run. Tennessee should employ an eight man front for most of the game.  Against the Skyhawks Young showed an ability to run posting 55 yards on 8 carries.  The Vols defense should be mindful of his running capabilities, since we seem to always struggle with mobile quarterbacks.  Tennessee should not respect the pass until Young shows he has the ability complete throws down the field.  On offense Tennessee will struggle to run the ball effectively.  However, our strength in the passing game should set up well to take advantage of their weaknesses in the defensive backfield.  A lot of three wide receiver packages should be utilized to take advantage of mismatches and hope to make the Golden Eagles have to substitute for one of their linebackers.  If Tennessee shows an ability to stop the run, and that is a big if (especially after last week), they should win easily.  While Southern Miss should be able to keep our running backs in check, I do believe the Vols should be successful passing the ball.  I feel that Southern Miss will keep the game close for most of the game playing ball control offense utilizing their run game, however, their ineffectiveness throwing the ball will eventually allow Tennessee to take control of the game.  Tennessee wins 27-17.