Baselining the 2008 Tennessee Volunteers

Before we take a look at UCLA, I thought it might be useful to take one last look at Tennessee to establish a sort of baseline against which we can compare our opponents. So . . .

Schedules

2007				2008
9/1	at No. 12	L 45-31		9/1	at	W
9/8		W 39-19		9/6	Bye
9/15	at No. 5	L 59-20		9/13		W
9/22		W 48-27		9/20		L
	Bye			9/27	at	L
10/6	No. 12	W 35-14		10/4		W
10/13	at	W 33-21		10/11	at	?
10/20	at	L 41-17		10/18		W
10/27	No. 16	W 27-24		10/25		W
11/3		W 59-7		11/1	at	?
11/10		W 34-13		11/8		W
11/17		W 25-24		11/15	Bye
11/24	at	W 52-50		11/22	at	W
12/1	No. 7	L 21-14		11/29		W
1/1	No. 18	W 21-17

Last year, Tennessee went 10-4 with three bad losses, two good wins, and three close wins. This year, my best guess at this time without having seen the Clawfense in action and with all other duly noted caveats and disclaimers, is that we lose to Florida and Auburn and have toss up games against Georgia and Alabama. Call it 9-3 regular season.

Depth Chart (games/starts)

The experience of this team actually looks pretty good, I think, especially when you consider that those two sophomore starters on the defense are Eric Berry and Dennis Rogan, two of the best players on the team regardless of class.

Potential impact newcomers

• Brandon Warren. RTT#1 in the class of 2008. Freshman All-American tight end at Florida State in 2006. Already reportedly in Dave Clawson's Circle of Five, meaning one of the key cogs in the offensive machine.
• Gerald Williams. After a journey from high school to Tennessee that Frodo would term "long, arduous, and harrowing," finally made it to campus this summer and practiced with the team most of the fall. This RTT#2 in the class of 2008 linebacker is not quite out of the bowels of Mordor, however, but if he does get eligible, he's going to shore up well a potential weakness in the defense.
• Tauren Poole. I only have this guy rated 10th in a subpar Tennessee class, but coaches, players, and the few media privileged to watch scrimmages all rave about him. He's apparently overtaken last year's RTT#5 Lennon Creer for the third string tailback position.

Key stats from last year

Those numbers don't look so good until you account for the 12th ranked strength of schedule. Pass efficiency offense and, surprisingly, opponents points per game aren't bad.

Tomorrow, I hope to take at look at UCLA in these terms and see how they stack up. I'm particularly interested to see their key stats figures from last season and the experience in their depth chart for this one.