Gameday on Rocky Top

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Pardon the errors, as the bot understands neither southern accents nor football.

Joel:
Welcome to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. Welcome back to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. I’m Joel Hollingsworth. And as always, I am joined tonight by the ever awesome Will Shelton. Will, how you doing this evening?

Will:
I’m doing fantastic, man. Good to be back. Good to be with you. How are you?

Joel:
I am doing well. It’s been I think all these little minor health annoyances have been ravaging their way through our house this week. And so I am slightly medicated. So I apologize in advance or or maybe I should charge extra. I don’t know. But yes, let’s. But. But it’s all good. We’re we’re working it all out. I was up at 445 this morning taking our youngest daughter to a procedure. She had to get bought Botox for her, for her hand. That is has a little bit of C.P. in it. And so that was fun being up so early from that day. They had to put her under and everything, I guess, because, you know, it’s like 30 shots in an arm for an eight year

Will:
Oh,

Joel:
Old.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
That’s a lot.

Will:
Well, for thirty, almost thirty eight year old, I would go under for that too. So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I understand.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
I was up at six, but only because my one year old felt like getting up at six. There was no legitimate reason for it. So, yes.

Joel:
They tend to do that. They kind of rule the house in the sleep schedules department.

Will:
Yeah. I’m figuring that out. So this is it. This is 9 0 8 in the p.m. when we’re recording this and I’m standing in the kitchen drinking coffee. So that’s kind of how it’s going.

Joel:
So you won’t sleep at all and then he’ll wake you up again at 6:00 tomorrow.

Will:
Now, I’ve just I’m immune. I feel like I’m just doing like any good addiction, it’s just for the routine of it. Like I feel like it has no effect on my life at this point.

Joel:
All right, so so the podcast is back. School is in session, kick off just a few days away. You remember back in the day and I’m sure this just wasn’t like an Illinois thing. I’m I’m hoping it wasn’t. But you the first thing had to do when you got back to school in the fall, you had to write a paper or give a speech or something on what you did over the summer vacation. What do I do with my summer vacation? Right. So.

Will:
Yes, that in the Alocoa city school systems as well in Tennessee. Yes.

Joel:
All right. Good, so you got some reps in. So before we get into football, what was the coolest thing about your summer? That was not related to football.

Will:
So my my wife is a cake decorator, slash dessert chef. More a she was a dessert chef, more in Tennessee

Joel:
Wow.

Will:
And more of a cake writer in Virginia. And like her,

Joel:
You married

Will:
Her

Joel:
Well.

Will:
Business is. Yeah. Listen, she. She acquired that skill after we got married, actually.

Joel:
Whoo!

Will:
So I

Joel:
Bonus.

Will:
Finished it. You had some had some some free time after finishing a degree and before we had our son. And so she took a class on a random Saturday about five years ago. She made a smoky gray Tennessee cake, which was exciting in 2014 and less exciting in 2019. But anyway, she

Joel:
Just like the

Will:
Turns

Joel:
Uniforms themselves.

Will:
Or they they will sell you a game. Used helmets, smokey grey helmet for a thousand dollars, literally a thousand dollars right now.

Joel:
Well.

Will:
So I don’t I don’t know how many of those who have left the showroom there. But anyway, she. Business is booming for her. So we are spending a lot of time out. I spend a lot of time the summer at farmer’s markets here in southwest Virginia and selling cupcakes and taking money telling people have a nice day and all that stuff. So that was that’s been fun, too. There’s a new a new wrinkle in our lives.

Joel:
And gaining weight because you have a dessert connoisseur in the house or dessert,

Will:
Well.

Joel:
Master chef.

Will:
Well, I’ve. I have managed all all the working out and running I do is just to break even. Because of that factor.

Joel:
That’s the way to

Will:
So,

Joel:
Do it, though.

Will:
Yeah, I joke I joke with people all the time. And so I can drink coffee with three servings of creamer at 9:00, 10:00 at night. But I joke with people that like when she’s in the kitchen and I hear her go, dang it or something more exciting.

Joel:
You

Will:
That’s

Joel:
Celebrate

Will:
The best

Joel:
Like

Will:
Move

Joel:
Pavlov’s

Will:
For

Joel:
Dog. That’s like, yes. Like that one can’t be sold. But I will eat it. I will take that to the team. So she does so well like that. She’ll try out new flavors and stuff. And I’ll meet her over at the farmers market to be like, oh, man, I really wanna try one. And then she’ll sell out. I’m legitimately bummed.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
If you’re in the south West Virginia area, come check us out on Tuesday night’s.

Joel:
That’s right, because you can not eat a dollar.

Will:
That’s right.

Joel:
So that would totally bummed out, too. So what was that address again? The the farmer’s market in where?

Will:
So we’re yeah, we’re in. We’re in Pulaski, Virginia, home of the Pulaski Yankees 2019 Appalachian League East Division Champions. Been doing a lot of baseball too this summer. But, yes. Anyway, we’re. I have no idea. Anyone actually listens to this in southwest Virginia. But if you do come by and say hi on first and third Tuesdays at the farmer’s market, at the train station. That’s that’s what I’ve been doing all summer. What have you been doing all summer?

Joel:
Okay, so the two coolest things I did well, my my wife and I had our 25th anniversary, which was cool. And so well, that was back in May. And it took me until August to actually get get something scheduled. We went to a Daufuskie island. You’ve ever heard of Daufuskie?

Will:
I have not. That sounds made up.

Joel:
It does. I made up in it. You know, it it’s almost like it should be because it’s this island that is just south of Hilton Head. And you cannot get there by car. You have to take a ferry and you drive around on golf carts. And there’s like almost nobody there, especially this time of year. There’s 400 people that live there. And then, you know, anywhere they get to restaurants. Third, they’re convenience stores like half of a Weigel’s, you know. And most of its T-shirts and

Will:
Half

Joel:
Hats.

Will:
My goals.

Joel:
Yeah. So anyway, we went there. That was really cool. Also, the guys that I used to play in the band with way back in junior high and high school and a couple of years out of high school, we hadn’t played together in like 30 years and we all got together in Nashville for a little jam session and we learned some of the old songs. We had a draft for the songs we were going to learn re-learn. And then we got together and sounded bad for a couple of days and it was a lot of fun.

Will:
A couple of days.

Joel:
So,

Will:
That’s serious business right there.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
That’s not just we’re gonna play a few. And thank you, everybody. Good night. Let’s say a is does this. Does this exist online somewhere?

Joel:
There was a Facebook post where somebody recorded a little bit of us practicing. So we didn’t actually play in front anybody. I mean, we knew better in that way. We’d been asked to play like at homecoming for the thirty thirty first anniversary or reunion, you know. But I was like, you know what? Let’s get together and see how we sound before we play in front of people. There was a good thing. Two of the guys have actually been playing for a while in other bands stuff, but two of us were really rusty and it did start coming back. But there were some songs that we thought we could play that day that we turned out to be wrong about it.

Will:
Right.

Joel:
All right. So let’s let’s tie this summer thing into football. What was the what was the best thing you heard about the football team this summer and fall camp?

Will:
You know, I think that this is the quietest somebody of for one on the air. We’ve been doing this under this since 2006. Joel, year 2005. I

Joel:
Yep,

Will:
Think. Right.

Joel:
Yep.

Will:
I came I started at Rocky Top Talk right after Lane Kiffin got hired, which is say it’s like it’s a great career starting point there on the on the big time blogs is right when it went bad for your whole football team. But

Joel:
Yet we’re to blame for everything.

Will:
Yeah, it’s fine. I can take it. But I I think this is by far like the quietest offseason that we’ve had. Some of that is basketball. The basketball conversation lasted so much longer because success of Team Plus Rick Barnes flirtation with UCLA, plus incredible recruiting like it’s just it’s just more fun to talk about basketball and football right now. So I think it’s that’s OK that it’s quiet about football at the moment, I think. Former’s presence, at least to me and probably of people of my late thirties generation. There’s just so much more trust there with the big picture, with him in charge that there’s there’s less of an need to be anxious going into Pruitt’s year, 2. Then I feel like there was with Dooley good I at this point with Butch Jones, we were so sold on the recruiting that it really didn’t seem fathomable that you could recruit the way he was recruiting and actually get all those guys to actually sign here in February and then have it turn out the way that it did in terms of just not developing that talent. And so I think that’s the biggest takeaway with the football team this offseason, is that there really wasn’t a big takeaway. That’ll all change here in three days, of course. But I just think it’s been quiet. And that’s not that’s just not altogether bad at this point. That’s one of my biggest offseason things, too, is the bar. The bar is both low and also more realistic than it’s been at any point that I’ve been doing this in 14 or 15 years. So like seven and five or eight and four is gonna go a long way with people. That’s what they end up doing. So I think it’s it’s that’s just kind of it’s kind of a cheating answer. But my biggest takeaway is that I really don’t have one. And I think that’s I think it’s all right. I think it’s a good, healthy ish reflection, both of where basketball has been for for a lot of a summer months, but just also kind of where the football team is now.

Joel:
You know, the other thing we’ve learned over 14 or 15 years of doing this is that even though you go into the season thinking that 7 and 5 is OK when you actually have to experience it, it’s really not OK and everybody gets mad anyway.

Will:
Well, there’s there’s a particular like if you if you’re trying to figure out how they get to 7 and 5, the easiest path is they’d be Kentucky, they beat Vanderbilt, they beat BYU. And you get South Carolina in Knoxville. That means you’re gonna lose four in a row in the middle. I mean, you’re going to lose Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama. And yeah, I agree, no matter what we told ourselves about 7 and 5 being OK, if you lose four in a row that a with a bye week to some five weeks without a win. That’s

Joel:
Mm hmm.

Will:
Not going to be pleasant for anybody in the middle of that stretch.

Joel:
Yeah. So for me, one of the things that I’m most excited about and most excited to see the results of is this idea. And I think it’s documented and verifiable that the team is a lot bigger and heavier and presumably stronger because of all that. I think it’s I think it’s really important. And I think I’m hoping that it really can matter a lot. You know, it’s kind of cool to hear Pruitt say sometime during fall camp that, you know, part of the problem with the O line last year wasn’t it wasn’t as much talent as it was asking them to play before they were before their bodies were ready, you know? And presumably now they’re more ready. Not just the new guys. We didn’t just recruit new, bigger guys, but the guys who were there got bigger themselves, you know? Tatum, I think he’s doubled in size in two years. Right. So if he’s holding off Darnell Wright over there. Right. Right tackle. You know, he’s he’s doing something right. And maybe it’s, you know, largely due to the fact that he’s bigger, heavier and able to do what he’s being asked to do. So I’m looking forward to seeing whether that makes a big difference. Hope it does.

Will:
Yeah, and there’s an interesting. The guys you recruit at the top of your list are always the guys you expect to come in and perform right away. It doesn’t always work that way. I think Malik Grey was was Tennessee’s highest rated signee and one of those late Butch Jones years and he just left the program and never did anything here. So it doesn’t always work. But to these two highest rated signings were where Wright and Morris, your offensive tackles. So it’s natural to expect those guys are going to come in and be great right away. But man, offensive tackle is like the last place where you can really expect a freshman to come in and really be strong. Sometimes you just you do what you gotta do. I also think Trey Smith is not doing anybody any favors here because you’ve got this memory of where he came in and was great as a freshman. But man, it’s not fair to expect these guys to be Trey Smith in 2017. So that’s just a weird spot. The good news about that is there’s other freshmen, Eric Grey, Henry Toto. I’m glad I got to be the first one on the podcast. You shut

Joel:
Well,

Will:
Up.

Joel:
done.

Will:
Thank you. Hi there. So there’s other guys you can be excited about if you don’t get to see those guys. But I think this is the big storyline in the last 10 days or two weeks is are they really going to rotate? Eight to 10 guys on the offensive line. Is that really what’s best for business? I think that’s you know, just because just because Marcus Tatum is the starting right tackle against Georgia State or even BYU and beyond, doesn’t mean that your two highest rated recruits were a bust. It just means, man, it’s awfully hard to play true freshman at those positions when you’re getting ready to stare down that barrel of Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina. That’s just that’s a big ask. So they’re gonna get opportunities. But I don’t I’m not convinced. It’s like the worst thing in the world if they don’t just come in here and start right away and play all these snaps. Tennessee has better options. That’s a good thing, because, man, you’re a freshman is your best option at tackled, and that’s problematic.

Joel:
Yeah, and if there’s nothing behind them, but it sounds like we’re not just too deep, but maybe even a little bit more than that along the line, which is which is nice, especially with some of the attrition that we’ve had there too. So.

Will:
I mean, that goes back to there, you’re not just saying about Bush, you’re talking about Dooley recruiting a class of those guys without any any linemen. And so, yeah, that’s that’s a long term problem that Tennessee is just now. Really next year, I think, is when we’ll be able to say, OK, now we don’t have to worry about this as much as we have for the last six or seven years yeah.

Joel:
So I’m kind of allergic to hyperbole, but the more I hear, the more I’m reminded of Dooley’s no offensive line class. That’s just malpractice. That’s just terrible.

Will:
You hate that word, too, I have used that word before or use it in a post and you’ve been like, I don’t like that word. Like as a lawyer,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
You know, like you

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Have the right to say that. And so that’s that’s Joel’s use of malpractice should be taken very seriously.

Joel:
That is is very strong for me. Yes.

Will:
Yeah. And you know, some of that is you look back on that now and I just wonder how much those guys had riding on. You know, if they’d done well in 2012, if they hired a different defensive coordinator or promoted Lance Thompson or whatever, and they won, you know, eight or nine in 2012, which probably would’ve felt like a big deal. You could have dodged Butch Jones, but I’m still not sure it would’ve been what was best for Tennessee in the moment going forward to have another year of Derek Dooley. So you just what we do this in the more Tennessee loses along the way. You know, you just kind of I. I spent a long time saying we don’t have enough information about Derek Dooley. And it’s affected the way I look at folks going forward in terms of trying to be a little more objective and things like that. But yeah. That’s that set Tennessee up for failure in ways where, you know, Butch, his first year, they still had all those Tyler Bray offensive linemen. But after that, man, I mean, and this is to tie this into this year. This is a really big question for me about this year’s team. And Jim Chaney too, Justin Worley got destroyed in a half a season twice because they were playing him behind an offensive line that wasn’t ready, that was having to go against get, you know, Coleman Thomas against Oklahoma in 2014.

Will:
Like there were lots of just bad situations out there. And they put him, especially 2014 with those younger guys. They were trying to win games. And so they were taking a lot of shots downfield and putting Worley in a lot of positions where he was going to get hit a lot. And I’m curious to see with this particular offensive line, how much are they going to do that with Guarantano, who got knocked out of a bunch of games behind a bad offensive line last year? Some of this I still wonder, is this why Tennessee ran fewer plays in the country than any team last year? Because they’re just trying to do risk management or survive or whatever the case may be. But I’ll be curious to see how many times if they really feel like they’ve got the receivers and they’ve got the potential to take some shots downfield. Is there a part of them that says, man, that’s another shot Guarantano is going to take? And how how willing will they be to put him in harm’s way, especially against the teeth of that schedule there in October?

Joel:
So I was going to I already praised you for saying To’oto’o. Name the next test was going to be saying the quarterback’s name, but you’ve already failed twice.

Will:
Yeah. Guarantano. Yeah. It’s bad. It’s my bad.

Joel:
Of course, we’ve had lots of failure there over the years. So,

Will:
We all have. Yeah.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah. I wonder why he didn’t correct anybody. He’s just, you know, you know that the lack of leadership that he’s finally going into his fifth year or fourth.

Will:
That would be great if I hadn’t written that idiot optimist piece yet. And he’s finally worked up the nerve to tell us his name, his real name. It’s got to be worth two wins. Just makes it. He made the joke today about being called Guantanamo. That was

Joel:
Yes.

Will:
A was an Idiot Optimist joke from two years ago. The beaches of Dormandy and

Joel:
Yes,

Will:
Guantanamo.

Joel:
I

Will:
Garrett

Joel:
Remember

Will:
Taught

Joel:
That.

Will:
Him obey or whatever. So.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Yeah. Yeah. Again, we’re all where? I’ll plead. I mean, I won’t plead the fifth. I’ll just I’ll just say, hey, man, we’re all guilty of that one. I’m very sorry that we did not have the correct knowledge on the correct pronunciation of your name.

Joel:
Don’t ask us all dogs to do those new tricks right now. Yeah. All right. So big picture, meaning like just from a wins and losses standpoint right now. We’ll get in the details in a minute. But what do you. What do you hope to see this fall? What what are the most important games?

Will:
Well BYU. I mean, that just feels like a game that you have to win. And we’ve seen us a couple times and seen it go a couple of different ways that Kiffin first year UCLA. It was a game. Well, we’re Tennessee’s got to win that game. And they didn’t. And they and they lost and in particularly frustrating fashion. But still, they got things turned around in October. They got a big meaningful win. And by the end of that year, nobody was still really chirping on that UCLA loss. So I’m not saying if they lose to BYU, then everything’s out the window. But that’s that’s just a big win to get. We’ll see two. I mean, we’re gonna see those guys late tomorrow night. I’m going to see those guys early Friday morning. Like, you know, just how I know we’re gonna talk about the gators here in a minute, but like that’s gonna make a big difference. We haven’t really had a year like this. Tennessee hasn’t played a cupcake in Week 1 since Butch Jones first year because we ran into that stretch of Utah state with Chucky Keaton and then Bowling Green and then Appalachian State and Georgia Tech and West Virginia. So it’s been a minute since we really don’t have to be overly concerned with Tennessee in week one. And you’re getting to shop before we take a snap. You’ve got a you’ve got a colorful opinion about the gators now. And you’re gonna get a good one with BYU here on on tomorrow night against Utah. So that could change if BYU wins that game. I think that may change folks opinion about the winnable nature or the percentage in our expected win total machine that you put on BYU.

Will:
But I think getting that one allows you to survive whatever happens against Florida and whatever happens against Georgia. And I say whatever happens, I think it allows you to just kind of roll with the punches of a competitive loss to Florida and whatever happens with Georgia. Florida is the biggest opportunity on that on a schedule. You know, if you get that game, that’s going to mean a whole lot to a whole lot of people. But in terms of just what’s important for progress, BYU at the start, Vanderbilt at the end, especially if we’re in this business of six and six, is a realistic outcome. Then you could come to Vanderbilt at five and six and you just no matter what happens the rest of the year, you would lose some sense of opportunity by losing to those guys. It would knock it down a peg and bowl standings. It would be four years in a row, which seems incomprehensible, but it would be true. So those two to me, if you get those two games, then we’re assuming, you know, Tennessee just needs to pick up one more. Kentucky, South Carolina, somebody in there to get to six to get two more of those. You’re at seven. So that to me, Florida is always going to be your biggest opportunity available since I don’t think we’re ready to count Alabama in that conversation yet. But BYU and Vanderbilt at the beginning and the end, you get those I think you’re going to come out of this thing with at least an okay sense of how the season went. If you get both of those games.

Joel:
All right. So that was all very compelling.

Will:
But.

Joel:
But yeah, I just I don’t really care about BYU, really. I don’t know why.

Will:
Oh, oh, oh, no. No. Well, go ahead.

Joel:
You know, it’s a non conference game. And I think are we we have to figure out how to compete in the SEC, you know, and that’s a long road because we’re a long ways away from winning the SEC championship. We’re a long ways even from winning the SEC East. And we’re actually a longer a ways away from even getting lined up with Florida and Georgia to compete for the east. I mean, we’re so far down that we got to worry about just not losing to Vanderbilt anymore, you know? And so I just I just don’t think I’m just more focused on the SEC. And I also think that we’re probably going to win for some reason. So I’m just not worried about it and I don’t really care. So it’s probably bad combination. So don’t tell the team that.

Will:
I

Joel:
That.

Will:
Think I’m looking at it more from the sense of getting one early that you really were allowed to feel good about for

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
More than that.

Joel:
Yeah. That.

Will:
And I think the way things have gone, I think they can survive a competitive loss with Florida and still go into the byway, get three and one excited about not the future, but excited about what the rest of this team could do, because we just haven’t had all the good that they did with Cincinnati, who is probably a comparable opponents. I’d have to go back and research that more. But that Cincinnati team, Butch Jones, Cincinnati, and seeing that they beat in ’11 probably comparable situation to a non power five team coming in. But everything good about that just got tossed when Justin Hunter blew up his ACL in the first

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Drive of the Florida game. So sometimes that happens. But you know, NC State, the good you felt about that, another maybe comparable to BYU kind of situation. You can’t give up a thousand plays of 80 plus yards against the gators a couple of weeks later in that year, in a year three when you’re supposed to pay it off. I just I just think you need a Tennessee needs a win

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
And not not Georgia state, you know, and to get one before. This was Butch’s problem before 2016 is that his big wins came in mid-October or later and they were more stop the bleeding wins or change the narrative wins. It would be nice to get one in September that really counts and matters. And to do that before you have a payoff year before you have like a like a Battle at Bristol where you’re almost relieved to win the thing instead of just kind of being a right, we’re moving in the right direction sort of thing. So that’s that’s just kind of if you get BYU, I think it puts you in a better frame of mind as a fan and a healthier place to try to go. Get South Carolina. Kentucky. Vanderbilt. The games you’re talking about.

Joel:
Yeah, I agree with all of that, the the the lingering impact, positive or negative, will be important just from the from the final result. It just doesn’t feel like something that we can’t recover from. I wouldn’t think into me that my whole analysis of the season going in is just sort of okay, let’s win the non conference. And I know, you know, if we don’t get BYU, then that’s, you know, an assumption that you’ve already made that you’re wrong on and that’s going to feel bad. So I understand that, but I’m just sort of assuming those four and then, you know, assuming three losses, Alabama, Georgia, probably Florida. And so I think the whole season comes down to those other S.E.C. East teams. And I’m I’m ignoring Mississippi State for now, too. But I think it comes down to the other SEC east teams because you got to get out of the cellar. You have to get out of the second tier of the SEC east. And I think that’s a first order of business. And so you get you got to not lose to Vanderbilt. That’s nonsense. Don’t do that anymore. And then you got to get two of the other three. South Carolina, which we haven’t beaten for much too long, too. And then Kentucky and Missouri get get two of those three. And I think that’ll be a success there. So that’s sort of how I’m running it down. Hope it works out that way.

Will:
It’s interesting. I mean, you did a good job in our magazine pointing this out. There’s the scheduling really works to Tennessee’s favor against Missouri and really works against Tennessee when it comes to Kentucky, which there is a whole and I subscribe to this, too, I have even do it. And that win expectancy thing of. I just assume we’re going to beat Kentucky

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Because Kentucky couldn’t beat Tennessee. I mean, couldn’t compete with Tennessee last year then. You know, I don’t I don’t see it happening up there this year when they’re kind of in a rebuild reload. I know some of their fans want to call it reloading and we’ll see about that. But I just I just I’m more confident about Tennessee beating Kentucky at Kentucky than I am Tennessee beating South Carolina in Knoxville or Vanderbilt in Knoxville, for that matter. Just because of that, that sense from a Tennessee perspective, I know they beat us two years ago, but because of everything that was happening with Butch Jones, you just kind of forget about that one. So, you know, that’s. But it’s a good spot on the schedule to catch Tennessee there. But see, I think a lot of this conversation when we talk about record in which games are going to win and which games you’re going to lose. If if Tennessee finds a way somehow to sneak around and beat the Gators or beat Georgia, I know Georgia is off the bye week, too. But let’s. I just don’t think that’s a 0 percent. That’s not at Alabama. Georgia.

Joel:
Yeah, Georgia to us is like Florida against us. No matter how different the teams are in in talent, Tennessee always has a chance again against them

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Or

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
They tend to blow it against us. I guess I’ll put

Will:
Yeah,

Joel:
It that way.

Will:
I think all of that is true, and I don’t think anyone would argue with that. Listen to this podcast. And so if you if Tennessee finds a way to get one of those, it just prevents that saying of where you go seven and five. But you feel like at the end of the year that you didn’t beat anybody because again, this is a lot of the Butch Jones narrative. You need to make memories and then you need to make them last. And can Tennessee go 7 5 and beat BYU, South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and the other three non conference teams and be seven and five and say, OK, that was that was a tip of the cap to that year. Sure. But, you know, what are we going to be talking what are we going to remember out of that group at the end? Maybe it’s the bowl game. I don’t know. So you just I think the staff understands that all these guys been around big, big, big time college football long enough to know like some games just matter more than others. And so that, you know, that to me really is a piece of that puzzle, too. Yes. Tennessee needs to win all of those games that you’re talking about. Yes, that is the next step. You have to take it. You’re trying to make progress in the SEC East! But man, it would be really nice to get to get the gators or hey.

Will:
Mississippi State has an outside chance of rolling in here undefeated. If they can beat Auburn, especially the week before they come to Knoxville, there is an outside chance you’re playing Mississippi State as a top 15 team. So that one also could be a potential bulls and board, you know, sort of sort of win. And Missouri certainly and and win to let out. Missouri has an outside chance of being whatever that is. Eight, no. Nine. And before they hit that stretch of Georgia, Florida and Tennessee. And if they split those two, they would still be ranked very high before they played played the Vols. So it doesn’t have to be get the gators or get Georgia. New opportunities arise all the time. None of us thought beating Kentucky would be such a big deal last year until it was. So you just got to. They just need to find seven and five would be a tip of the cap at a job well done, like I say. But oh, it would be so much better if it included at least one in there where we could go back and relive it at the end of the year and remember it fondly and not remember it like last season where you had two really memorable wins. But the moral of the story is you still went five and seven.

Joel:
Yeah, and not just five and seven. Those last two games man, those were just catastrophes. All right. So apart from the big picture, let’s talk about some details. You did this thing over the summer, which I loved so much that I basically plagiarized it a couple of weeks ago. So not just looking at it like wins and losses and what’s teams we’re gonna beat and all that stuff. The things I’ve been calling lead measures, these are things that lead to winning before you get there. I tied them together. As you see, I put more third and short conversions. We’re going to do that more yards per carry regardless of down. We got to get more takeaways or get to get more sacks. We got to get better in the red zone on on defense. And we got to keep Guarantano out of the medical tent. So tell it. Tell us more about those things that you spent a lot of time on them over the summer. But let’s talk about some of those. What do you think are the most important ones? And what do you give me looking at early on?

Will:
So the thing Tennessee was very worst that last year was running on third and short. That’s third and 1 through 3. The average is something like twenty one carries for twenty yards. You know, you remember you watch these games where early in the season, especially if it’s third and one it’s Pruitt, you know, he’s going to say let’s just get a yard and Tennessee just could not do that. So Tennessee was the only team in the country to average less than a than a yard and a half per carry on third and short and they average less than a yard, period. So.

Joel:
That’s not very good, right?

Will:
No, that’s very bad. Very, very bad. And there will be a point not. I mean, look, if Tennessee can’t line up and get a yard against Georgia State, then we don’t even need to have this conversation anymore. But I’d be curious to see against BYU, against the Gators, who clearly have some dudes on the defensive line. If it’s third and one, how many times is Tennessee going to run it into the interior and get stuffed before they decide? All right. Let’s do something else.

Joel:
But

Will:
Help

Joel:
Let me stop

Will:
By.

Joel:
You there just for a second, just because this popped into my mind, you know, Pruitt, it took him a long time to learn that last year.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Right.

Will:
Yeah.

Joel:
Does Chaney have to relearned that to where are we gonna have to wait for him to learn it now?

Will:
That’s a good question. I don’t think Cheney would be afraid of first time offensive coordinator. It’s gonna be in their nature a little bit to two. First, the offensive coordinator for some play caller and like Helton was last year in that kind of situation. The old shotgun on third and one is so easy. You’re such an easy target when you do that and you don’t make it that. I think it’s easier for someone like Chaney, who’s so well established to be to get like we all hate shotgun on third and one. But that was a better option for Tennessee last year

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Than that. Lining it up and just go in. So I would trust Chaney in that situation. Maybe you got it figured out one game. But, you know, hopefully these guys can. These guys are paying for the fancy advanced version of the stats package that I’m just getting for free and compiling stats. So hopefully they know all that. But that’s that’s the big thing. The good news about that is if you’re in if you’re in third and 1, you did an all right job on the first and second. Now you know, you’re on schedule, as they say. So Tennessee was okay if they didn’t go backward on on first down. If they if they did something that didn’t wasn’t a sack or a blow up behind the line and there were fewer of those last year than there were the year before then they did okay. It’s just they couldn’t they couldn’t do what really should be the easiest piece of that. I mean, this is all in the piece I wrote. But statistically, it was better. It was better for Tennessee to be in third and medium and pass than to be in third and short and run. So that’s got to change or you just run less on third and short. So that’s the area for most possible improvement. The most interesting one to me as the business is about running fewer plays than anybody in the country.

Will:
I just don’t know. I have got some guesses in terms of trying to protect Pruitt, trying to protect the defense. That really wasn’t good. Really wasn’t good. All year. They were good at creating turnovers against Auburn. And they were they were good enough to be sure against Kentucky. But Tennessee just got behind so quickly and so many of those other games, I think we really undersold how bad the defense was at times last year. And so one way you protect that is you just shorten the whole thing. And so I will be curious to see. I don’t expect Tennessee to run fewer plays in any team in the country this year. How much faster are they going? How many more plays are they? Are they taking? So that one to me is the most interesting in terms of if you’re still trying to keep Guarantano alive and upright. That’s that’s part of that equation. If your defense is behind your offense because you’ve lost significant contributors on your defense, your defensive line is you have no idea what’s going on up there right now. If you need to win games, if it’s easier for you to win games by scoring a lot of points this year and your head coach is one of the best defensive coordinators of this decade, how how’s that going to work? You know, is Pruitt going to be willing to say, all right, screw it, let’s win this thing? Forty five.

Will:
Forty four. That’s not what he desires, but it may be what Tennessee’s best opportunity to win looks like. So those two, to me, are the most interesting. There are some others just just generally. You’ve got to create more turnovers. Think gets 15 and each of the last two years, that’s not doing you any favors. And just more explosive plays in the running game. Tennessee just didn’t have a lot of that last year. It’s there on the passing game, but wasn’t there in the run game. And also some of those pieces worked together in terms of being more explosives means you run fewer plays, but your your plays are more successful. If Tennessee can be good enough to get in a lot of third and short, again, just being a little bit better, little little improvements. And this is kind of the theme of our magazine, little improvements here and there. This is really good on special teams last year. It doesn’t matter when you’re getting beat up by 26 points by everybody. But some of those pieces of the puzzle are already in place. So, you know, just a little improvements and a couple of those areas could end up making a big difference for this team this year.

Joel:
So this is one of the many reasons I love you, because that was like the most diplomatic way of saying you left out the most important thing that I wrote in my plagiarized version of a year earlier one. What about the number of plays? I wasn’t quite sure how to add a you know. I mean, are you. Are you going to be watching to see how fast they run or how many plays they run each game and all that stuff for that? That’s not really going to measure or just something you’re you’re sort of interested to see as a philosophic kind of change.

Will:
I think I think it’s more philosophy than anything. I think that. Those guys were so aggressive against the gators last year and none of it worked.

Joel:
Yeah, yeah,

Will:
You know, like

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Like so hyper aggressive and I think hyper aggressive in measurable ways, not just because we’ve been watching Butch Jones for five years and we’re used to that stuff. I mean, everything was go for the throat. I think, again, these guys understand that some wins are worth more than others. And it just, you know, in unusual and surprising ways backfired on them. And then, you know, the team didn’t respond well when it backfired on him. It just the hole got much deeper, much quicker. So I wondered about that from from there going forward. But also, there’s still there’s just such a big jump from the Gators to Georgia and Alabama that, you know, against Georgia last year, their playing it mostly down. And that all had one. It was one big splash play. Right. They threw it to Ty Chandler. I think if I’m remembering this game. Right. And it was my son’s first birthday party that day last year. So I don’t have all the I got other memories going on there. But a.

Joel:
Well, probably better ones.

Will:
Yeah. But, you know, going into the fourth quarter there, they’re down, what, twenty four to twelve. So, you know, there is some merit to let’s play a certain kind of game and keep it close. Kentucky that that game plan really worked. It shouldn’t be Kentucky by more if they don’t fumble in the second half. So I’ll just be curious to see. I think Chaney can do it any way you want it. I don’t think he has to do up tempo and let’s try to score a touchdown on every play. And he hasn’t been that guy in his first year at places. He’s been much more. You know, we’re building something here and that kind of stuff. Now, I’m not sure any of the first places he’s been in the first year had that kind of talent coming back at quarterback and wide receiver that Tennessee has now. So if they can block it, I think you can do lots and lots of things. And again, we may look we may come to this thing the week after the Florida game and say they can’t block it like it’s just what it is. They still can’t walk. We can talk for hours and hours all we want. But if you can’t block it, you can’t do it.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So,

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
Yeah, I’m just I’m just interested philosophically in how are they are they going slow on purpose to protect the defense? Again, that may not have it all put together. Are they are they going slow on purpose to limit the number of times that their quarterback is going to get hit when they don’t have anybody behind them? And really, we didn’t get to see this a whole lot last year. We saw it against Kentucky and we saw it for a second against South Carolina. What do they do when they get up 10 points on somebody? What what sort of urgency or put the foot down on people? Do they do they really put the foot down on Kentucky with a blocked field goal and turnovers in the red zone? It wasn’t really the offense that did it. It was a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. And then just kind of, you know, keeping it together as much as you could with Auburn. They they went into conservative mode against Auburn at the right time, like all that worked out well and fine. But there’s just some stuff that these players just don’t know. These guys don’t know a whole lot about playing with a lead on a good team. So, yeah, I don’t I don’t. That’s a long and rambling answer to say I don’t know. I think it’s fascinating. I think it’s it’s really fascinating that Tennessee ran fewer plays in the country than any other team. But I don’t know how much that’s going to change this year. And I’m really interested to find out.

Joel:
So speaking of, if you can’t block it, you can’t you can’t run it. We got a glimpse of Florida against Miami to kick off the season last Saturday. Defense looks good, but it was sloppy in the line, as I said, looked vulnerable. I mean, for both teams, me them getting getting them both confused. But I think they both looked bad on the offensive line. And Feleipe Franks is becoming one of my least favorite rivals ever. Quickly. But he looked rattle-able. So what do you think? Was it was that just first game rust that you’re probably noticing more because they were playing a good opponent on the first game? Or are maybe they not quite as good as advertised?

Will:
The best comment on that game I can remember is somebody on Twitter had it looks like this game is being played in a monsoon and there’s not a drop of rain out there like that. My favorite, favorite comment about that game. The good news about the Gators is you’re gonna get another live fire. I don’t know who they got. They’re off this week. I don’t know who they got next. But then they got Kentucky. So you will at least we’ll get another data point on them before before we see them,

Joel:
Do they

Will:
Because

Joel:
Have three

Will:
The.

Joel:
byes because of that? I should look at that.

Will:
I think they they should, right, because they’re playing a week early on and they’ve got the same. They’ve got they have a week one by, you know. Nobody else has that weak one by other than them in Miami and I’m sure Arizona. But yes, I’m sure there’s there’s other buys built in there, probably one before Georgia because that’s how it works for them. But now I feel like in talking with other Tennessee fan, in talking, it’s fun being in southwest Virginia because you get, you know, objective opinion on games like that that everybody’s watching. But these folks don’t care if the Gators win or lose. And the objective opinion was just what a ridiculous like perfect week zero game it was. But I feel like among Tennessee fans and I can be talked into this, too, there’s this school of thought after being so aggressive against him last year. Like, maybe we should just wait for them to do something dumb. Looks like they seem they seem eager to be dumb on offense

Joel:
Well,

Will:
And

Joel:
Defensively

Will:
Maybe.

Joel:
To you and the cornerbacks at the end of the game.

Will:
Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. But I mean, like maybe, maybe, maybe we just sit back and are like, all right. Like, here you go. If you don’t score on us, it’s gonna be a twelve play drive and we think you’re gonna do something dumb on plays one through eleven. So, you know, it’ll be interesting to see. That’s the old again, we’re old guys doing this. The team that runs for the most yardage wins this game in Tennessee with with the one exception of of Dobbs and all those guys there. And then really weird 2016 game. Every time Tennessee tries to outgun Florida, they lose in this rivalry. So I appreciate the aggressiveness, even though it failed spectacularly last year. I appreciate that that mentality. But that’s why we just need we need to see him against Kentucky, because I feel like that’s kind of what you’re talking itself into now as well. Franks is going to throw a two stupid interceptions against us. He might, but he might not.

Joel:
So one of the things I find really interesting about that Florida game is that, you know, the commentators were saying there’s you know, it’s it’s sloppiness because there is no preseason in the college game. And so, you know, people them in that have been thudding don’t know how to tackle yet. And they’ve got a lot of rust and stuff to knock off. And I just think you’re more likely to see that against a good team than you are maybe against, say, a cupcake. All right. So we got to we’ve got to wrap this up. But is there anything you want to say about Georgia State before we conclude sorry, Georgia State fans.

Will:
No. No. I mean, I’m even struggling. I’m still more interested in big picture conversation about Tennessee than what’s going to happen against Georgia State this week. So. Even the even the interesting things of which like is Eric Grey going to be the first substitute for Ty Chandler? That’s interesting a little bit.

Joel:
Mm hmm.

Will:
But the other stuff, if you’re if it’s much more interesting beyond that and a couple of other kids, even questions like how many offensive linemen do they rotate some of that? We’re just going to say, well, it’s because we were playing Georgia State or is that really how it’s gonna be? So there’s there’s very little of that and more just about again, let’s enjoy our first week one cupcake since 2013. And let’s take a look at some of these other teams and let’s keep everybody healthy. And as long as Tennessee looks, you know, they’re favored by three or four touchdowns. As long as they do that, then I think we’re just kind of still in a holding pattern. And we’ll see what BYU does on Thursday.

Joel:
So you think we cover? My machine is saying no.

Will:
I think it’s I think it’s about right. It’s trending down, it’s trending. It was twenty five and a half. Maybe it’s the last time I saw it. So, again, one one question that is interesting in the big, big picture, how fast they put the backup quarterbacks in there. At what point are you comfortable with that lead? So I think that that could if Tennessee is up 20 one late in the third quarter and they go ahead and put the backups and then, you know, the fact that they don’t cover if they don’t cover from that point, I think that’s not really fair. But I think it’s about right. I think it’s, you know, twenty twenty seven, twenty eight four possessions. I think that’s I think that’s fine.

Joel:
Well, that would be just fine with me. So you have my approval to set that line right there. So.

Will:
I think what I picked up picks contests was something more like thirty five because it’s week one and I’m feeling good. But yeah, I you know, we haven’t earned the right to complain about this. This isn’t Butch Jones, year four. We haven’t. We haven’t earned the right to complain about being a Georgia state by only twenty five or whatever.

Joel:
All right. Well, there you have it. Our back from summer edition of The Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. Live from Daufuskie with no Internet. Actually, that’s not where I’m at. I’m back. I’m back from Daufuskie. I made it home on the ferry. So we will be back. We’re planning on a recap that we post maybe Tuesday morning podcast and then maybe a preview that we’ll probably post Thursday morning. But we’ll be playing a little bit by ear because we got youngins running the household and waking us up at 6:00 and making us drink caffeine with cream at nine thirty on the kitchen counter. So all subject to change. But as always, thanks for listening to the Gameday on Rocky Top Podcast. We will see you next time whenever it is. And for Will Shelton, I’m Joel Hollingsworth. And thanks for listening.

Joel:
And of course, then it went through, it just didn’t want to hear my thing about her, about Florida.

Will:
That’s the trigger language about week zero announcers and all that good stuff.

Joel:
Yeah.

Will:
So.

Joel:
Hey, do you mind if I turn it off, though, and try calling you back on Google Talk? Just in case we need

Will:
Nuts.

Joel:
That as a backup.

Will:
That’s fine.