When Derek Dooley was taking his first steps as Tennessee’s coach, the Vols faced an elite Oregon team in week two. Tennessee led 13-3 early and was still alive midway through the third quarter, down 20-13 but driving into Duck territory. Then Matt Simms was pick-sixed, and the floodgates opened: 21 additional fourth quarter points from Oregon turned a competitive game at halftime into a 35-point blowout.
Dooley noted Tennessee’s inability to handle adversity in the postgame: “I was real disappointed from then on (the pick six) with how we competed. You would have thought we were down 40 (instead of 14).” This became a recurring theme with Dooley’s teams: the head coach would (correctly) point out that they didn’t handle adversity well, while never making successful adjustments to help them do just that. The Vols folded against Florida two years later in much the same fashion, and Dooley was on the way out.
In his second full week on the job, Jeremy Pruitt noted Tennessee’s struggles when faced with adversity against West Virginia, specifically when getting denied thrice at the goal line in the second quarter as the offense was coming off the field on 4th-and-1 almost as a reflex. Even without being overly critical of the previous administration, it’s fair to say the Vols need to build confidence after a 4-8 season and a steep fall from the Top 10 in mid-October the year before. We all wanted to believe the new staff could make some of that happen right away; I’d imagine the players hoped for the same thing. Pruitt has the rings as a coordinator to sell that argument.
When it didn’t happen, and the Vols lost by 26 to West Virginia instead, players and fans alike had to reset their baseline. It was just one data point – and hey, maybe West Virginia will turn out to have as much in common with 2010 Oregon as possible – but it was the first impression, and it didn’t inspire as much confidence as we were wishing for.
Today was the second data point. And while you won’t be talking about what the Vols did against ETSU when the season is over, today was important in beginning to rebuild that confidence. How did the Vols do?
Defensively, very well. ETSU gained only 194 yards on 58 snaps (3.34 yards per play) and were just 2-of-15 on third down. The Vols grabbed a pair of interceptions, a particularly welcome sight for freshman Bryce Thompson after facing West Virginia the week before. Tennessee still struggled to get pressure on the quarterback, but gave hope that what we saw last week had plenty to do with the opponent. As I write, Will Grier is 20-of-25 for 292 yards and three touchdowns against Youngstown State.
Jarrett Guarantano was sharp again: 8-of-13 for 154 yards, hitting a couple of deep balls to Josh Palmer and Marquez Callaway. The latter followed up his 6-for-63 performance from last week with 5-for-78. Last year only two Vol receivers (Callaway and Brandon Johnson) finished the year with more than 200 yards; Callaway is off to another strong start and is fast establishing himself as Tennessee’s top target.
The running backs all had individual moments that popped. But the Vols weren’t as effective as you’d like against FCS competition: Tim Jordan (15-for-65) and Jeremy Banks (13-for-62) were okay, but the run blocking didn’t inspire the confidence we’re looking for.
The good news: UTEP is next, 0-12 last year and a 30-10 victim to FCS Northern Arizona last week. There’s more confidence to be built and more fine-tuning the Vols will need to face the Gators.
One early difference between Pruitt and Dooley (and Butch): the new guy admitted his own mistakes from last week, noting poor clock management at the end of the second quarter gave West Virginia a shot at three more points. Confidence is only, always earned. The new coach is doing it one play at a time too.