A reporter asked Josh Heupel about how Tennessee improved from week one to week two. He said two short sentences, 24 total words, about how he liked his defense’s performance before diving back into the offensive miscues that plagued the Vols in their victory over Austin Peay.
Tennessee’s third-year head coach summed it up well in the opening statement of his postgame press conference.
“A win? Absolutely,” Heupel said. “Do we need to be a whole lot better? Yes. Absolutely. In particular offensively.”
Tennessee’s offensive issues started and finished with its passing offense. Joe Milton III’s first pass of the game was slightly behind Bru McCoy over the middle and the senior receiver dropped it. It was the perfect encapsulation of the Vols’ first half.
Milton was frequently slightly inaccurate and his receivers frequently dropped passes that weren’t great throws but they should have been caught. McCoy, McCallan Castles and Dont’e Thornton all had bad drops early in the game while Squirrel White couldn’t haul in a couple contested catches.
Those factors led to a dreadful one-of-eight start for Milton with the lone completion on a screen pass to Jaylen Wright. His receivers didn’t do him any favors, but Milton was inaccurate early and never got in a rhythm with his receivers.
“There are really small things,” Heupel said of the passing miscues. “Some of our things at wide out— we’ve seen those guys operate, function and handle all that at a really high level. … I feel like we’ve been really effective and been on the same page at times in the course of training camp. We’re just a little bit off here, particularly early in the football game. We have to do a better job of settling into the game early.”
Through two weeks against possibly the two worst teams on Tennessee’s schedule, the Vols have just two passing plays longer than 20 yards. One was a tight end screen. While both Austin Peay and Governor have played to take away the over the top pass, there’s been plenty of opportunities for chunk plays in the intermediate passing game.
“The deep, over-the-top shots were not (there), but there were some things in the middle of the football field that were wide open that we did not execute it,” Heupel said.
More From RTI: Austin Peay At Tennessee PFF Grades
Tennessee’s inability to get into a rhythm early led to Heupel making a radical adjustment. The Vols abandoned their downfield passing attack in the first half instead opting for receiver screens and quick run-pass options. Milton didn’t complete a pass beyond the line of scrimmage in the first half.
“It was a combination,” Heupel said on whether the adjustment was due to Tennessee’s miscues or the way Austin Peay defended Tennessee. “There were times when we were pushing it down the field and a little bit off, in particular early in the football game. There were some things situationally where we were off. Joe, wide receiver, combination of both things where we just weren’t in sync in critical situations.”
The move worked against the Governors. Tennessee used touchdown drives around halftime to open up a two touchdown lead which effectively put the game away. The Vols did it running the football and in the screen game.
“I feel like guys just started doing their assignments at a high level,” Milton said of the short passing success. “We didn’t start off the way we wanted to just because it’s Austin Peay and you can’t look at opponents like that. You have to go out there and dominate every play no matter who’s out there.”
The moral of the story is simple. Tennessee abandoned its passing game and went into survival mode against Austin Peay. An FCS school which trailed Southern Illinois 42-3 through three quarters in week one.
Tennessee was able to manhandle the Governors in the run game and use its massive athletic advantage to have success with receivers screens even though Austin Peay knew what was coming.
They won’t be able to do that next week when they open SEC play at Florida or for much of the remaining schedule. Heupel knows it too and Tennessee’s passing game is a major question as we enter the heart of the schedule.
5 Responses
Milton is the same old, same old. He’s missing his receivers and this group of receivers aren’t good enough to make adjustments on balls thrown at their feet and behind them. Was there one ball thrown downfield? Maybe I missed it. Running game looked good, passing game was really poor. No consistency at all. If you run a hurry up offense and don’t get first downs – you’re just giving the ball back to the opponent faster.
Oh yea, missed tackles, lots and lots of missed tackles. Too many receivers running open downfield. Defense COULD be good, but they aren’t right now.
Just have to have more success early in game. Can’t wait until second half to get rolling. They’ll work out the kinks
We’re gonna be fine!
Milton has no control on his throws. He’s a 6th yr senior? If he hasn’t made these adjustments by now, he never will. I like the kid, but let’s move on already!
Ho, Ho, Ho, Milton’s gotta go. I see shades of seasons past. One more stinky start for Milton equals a position on the bench. Milton can throw oranges to people in the upper deck after the game. Not to specific people, just somebody in the section. I hate to send Nico into the lions den, but that may constitute our only chance to win in the SEC. You can’t win games if you can’t get catchable balls to receivers. Receivers had too many drops as well. Don’t want to hear excuses. Execution, execution, execution.