Gameday on Rocky Top

Last year my wife and I brought our firstborn home from the hospital the day Tennessee played Georgia, the best of all ways to not be thinking about the game. “Did we really fumble it right back to them? Hey, he peed on the floor!” But from there, I’d imagine your October and November with the Vols were a little like mine no matter what ages you had at home: outcomes a little blurry, details inconsequential, lots of losing and little hope.

Yesterday friends and family gathered round to celebrate our son’s first birthday in the morning, then watch the Georgia game at 3:30. It seemed like another well-timed teacher of perspective. And we were all, spoken or unspoken, afraid of the same thing happening to the Vols again. Not the result, which seemed automatic with Tennessee at +32.5. But the outcome: a we’re-so-bad-none-of-this-matters hopelessness.

Tennessee made it matter. Right now, that’s a win.

It wasn’t simply in beating Vegas or playing better than last year against this particular opponent. The 2017 version featured not only a shutout but, far worse, 2.73 yards per play from the Vol offense. This time around Tennessee averaged 4.54. Not great, but it had a pulse. As has been the case since the West Virginia game, this is a theme for 2018: far from excellent, but capable of competence (when not turning it over six times).

Heart failure was a major concern coming in: new coach not used to losing, brutal loss to your most relevant rival last week, players sent to the locker room, uh oh. We’ve been staring down the oncoming train of this particular gauntlet for a long time. If what happened last year happened again this year, we wouldn’t have liked it but we might’ve understood it. And, as was the case when the calendar turned to October last year, the rest of the season would have been about next season.

But Tennessee showed heart on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense. They got little help from an offense that ran only 42 plays before Jeremy Banks fumbled with less than four minutes to go. The Vols seem committed to running the football, even if they’re not running it particularly well: Jarrett Guarantano remains fourth among SEC quarterbacks in yards per attempt (8.6), but the Vols are still last in the league in attempts (21.2 per game). Tennessee runs it almost literally twice as much as they throw it (211-106).

And this answer, like many things with this team, may simply come back to what they believe about the offensive line. Guarantano stayed relatively clean on Saturday – another big win – but you still feel nervous every time we don’t run. The gameplan for a while felt like Lane Kiffin’s against Urban Meyer when the Vols were 30-point underdogs on the road in 2009, with a quarterback we thought was fragile behind patchwork offensive line. Tennessee leaned on its defense, which worked to prevent big plays, and took few chances on the offensive end. Keep it close, and keep everyone – players, fans, etc. – invested.

It worked, eventually, in 2009. And it seemed to work this week too.

And it’s really selling our defense short to say they just worked to prevent big plays. In the run game, if you take out Isaac Nauta’s 31-yard gift with our defense in pass coverage, Georgia averaged 4.4 yards per carry. The only defenses to hold them to less than that the last two years: Notre Dame, Auburn (the first time), and Alabama. It’s a full day even trying to slow down Georgia’s run game. The Vol defense put in a full day’s work.

Speaking of heart, you’ll probably see what you want to see out of this:

“We’ve got fight in us.”

Jeremy Pruitt was asked what he learned about his team today. His response evoked emotion we haven’t seen from the head coach since he arrived at Tennessee. #Vols pic.twitter.com/JRvjIcKVAK

— Marc Whiteman (@MarcWhiteman) September 29, 2018

…but regardless of whatever way you lean on coach emotion, etc., the Vols had already proven Pruitt’s point before he got choked up. I’m not in the locker room to see it behind the scenes, but you saw it on the field yesterday.

So far, the Vols are better than they were last year. That part you can back up statistically, but we’re aiming for a higher bar than that. Given the opportunity to write themselves off, or be written off by the number two team in the country, Tennessee’s heart is instead still beating. Six wins still feels like an uphill climb, but the Vols still have their hands on the rope. Just as important, the Vols are still relatively healthy. Brandon Kennedy’s loss was obviously unhelpful, and one hopes Marquez Callaway can get out of concussion protocol by the Auburn game. But on the whole, Tennessee seems largely intact in mind, body, and quarterback.

Alabama, of course, is still to come; we all know what we’re getting into there. But the rest feels a little less known today. Auburn, despite their persistence in the Top 10, could drift slowly toward “trap game” territory in the next two weeks. Kentucky is in the Top 15 in both the polls and S&P+. I don’t know.

I don’t know about Tennessee either. But on a day when many were worried about us being put out of our misery on the last weekend of September, the Vols showed signs of life. It’s enough to get us through the bye week, and send us to Auburn with a spark. I don’t know if it’ll catch fire. But I’m eager to find out. Hope remains valuable around these parts. And while it may have gone to Athens to die, it came back to Knoxville alive.

Go Vols.

We all got through the moral victories phase long ago, so it’s hard to come out of the second-consecutive 26-point loss feeling anything warm-and-fuzzy about the Vols.

This year isn’t going to go like any of us hoped, and we’re just going to have to deal with that.

But, despite being overmatched and despite not getting Georgia’s best effort in what resulted in a 38-12 loss in Athens on Saturday, there were some definite positives if you’re looking through your orange-colored glasses. There were players who responded after last week’s six-turnover fiasco in a disastrous loss to Florida. There was fight all the way to the end when UGA did what it was supposed to do and took a Tennessee turnover and tacked on a shove-it score.

Jeremy Pruitt was almost defiant afterward, standing up for his players and getting emotional about just how far the program has come under him. Yes, the Vols are 2-3 with difficult games against Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina following the bye week, and yes, making a bowl game still looks like a glimmering light far in the distance, but the strides are still evident.

I’ve preached so many times already this season that we’ve got to take pride in the strides, and that is so hard to do when you’re not overly competitive with your rivals. But we still need to. I think it’s becoming quite clear just how far away we are from a talent perspective.

Georgia big-boyed us on that final touchdown drive before the turnover tack-on, and that was tough to see for a team that wanted — maybe even needed — the good vibes that come with keeping it respectable on the scoreboard. But, until then, Tennessee traded punches pretty well.

Take this into consideration: Seven of Georgia’s points came on a fluke fumble recovery by Isaac Nauta after Nauta missed his block on Darrell Taylor, who stripped Jake Fromm of the ball. Nauta picked up the ball and raced 31 yards for the game’s first score.

When the Vols finally put the ball on the ground at the end of the game, UGA marched right down and scored then, too.

But if you take away those two bad bounces/mistakes, UT was schematically fine, at least on defense. It’s very encouraging to see how well Taylor rushed the passer, forcing two fumbles and registering a sack. It was great to see sophomore Will Ignont flying around out there, and though he had a couple of run fits that will hurt his grade in final film study, he’s the type of athlete the Vols need on the second level, and he’s developing.

At times throughout Saturday’s game, Tennessee had three true freshmen playing together in the secondary in Bryce Thompson, Alontae Taylor and Trevon Flowers, and those guys are getting more dependable, too.

The defensive line isn’t great, but they’re making strides. The massive chunk-yardage plays the Vols were allowing a year ago aren’t as frequent anymore, and within the framework of drives, UT was strong, riding the ebbs and flows and getting off the field against a superior team.

Sure, Georgia wound up laying the hammer down, but it was more of situation of being gassed rather than outclassed.

It’s easy to see where the maturity needs to come. Offensively, I’m still frustrated with Tyson Helton’s play-calling, and I’m not excited about Pruitt’s decision to punt near midfield late in the game still down multiple scores. At that point, you gamble because you need to try to win. It was almost as if he was content to keep it close, and that’s not the killer instinct you want. The decision to go for two after the second touchdown was puzzling too, but that’s understandable, and it’s erring on the side of aggression, which will always get you a free pass with me. Those were snafus from which he’ll grow, and, like his team, he’s learning on the fly, too.

Jarrett Guarantano’s toughness is evident, and though he still isn’t where he needs to be, he’s getting better. I thought the offensive line was much better at times against Georgia, even though the running game still struggled to get traction. Ty Chandler in space is something we need to see more of; and it’s disappointing that he only got five carries and five catches. To beat teams like UGA, you must get the ball in your playmakers’ hands, and Helton has to do a better job of that.

Scheming around the inefficiencies of the offensive line hamstrings Helton and UT’s offense, and until that improves dramatically, we’re all going to be frustrated with the results.

But the best thing coming out of Saturday is we aren’t the team that laid an egg against Florida. If that’s our identity, we were going to be watching the worst Tennessee team in school history, and it’s encouraging to see the Vols clean up some of the mistakes, even if there are reams more to fix.

Looking ahead, this team isn’t hopeless for 2018, and I’m very encouraged by the groundwork being laid for the future. It will take two recruiting classes, but the defense will ultimately continue to improve. The Vols must get better offensive playmakers, but, again, that can be fixed by recruiting. Helton needs to get in a better groove and earn his money, but that also should be better with better players. (Doesn’t that cure all?)

We know two things about this year’s Vols: 1) we can’t afford to make mistakes like turnovers and penalties because we aren’t good enough to give anybody extra possessions and win, but 2) when we don’t make those mistakes, we’ll be in football games because they’re well-coached and well-prepared, even if they’re not well-equipped from an athlete standpoint to hang with the elites.

Kentucky looks like a difficult game, but it’s not unwinnable. While Missouri looks like a matchup nightmare because of its passing game, the Vols could be much-improved by then. There’s also no reason right now to mark off the Auburn, South Carolina or Vanderbilt off the list now. The Tigers have some issues, and though the Vols will be double-digit underdogs, it could help to have an extra week to prepare. South Carolina has better talent, too, but the Gamecocks have underachieved.

Six wins still seems like a long ways away, but it’s not impossible. Last week, I thought it was impossible.

That may be the smallest inkling of hope, but at least it’s some. This Tennessee team is beginning to learn how to play football the right way, and even though it won’t always do it, we’re starting to see the Vols being in position to make plays on defense and hitting a few things downfield on offense.

If you can’t see Pruitt’s passion for this team and this program, you’re not looking hard enough. This year is tough on us all, but it’s toughest on him and the players. Let’s just keep watching them improve. Maybe, by the end of the year, it will show in the win column.

If not, at least the frustration of building a foundation will be over.

The Tennessee Volunteers were still into the game well into the fourth quarter this afternoon but ultimately gave way to the No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs, 38-12.

The game got off to a typically ominous start for Tennessee when Darrell Taylor sacked Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm on third-and-9 and caused him to fumble. The two most likely outcomes of a play like that are a Tennessee guy falling on the ball or a Georgia guy falling on the ball and the Bulldogs settling for a field goal attempt. Instead, the ball bounced right into the hands of Georgia tight end Isaac Nauta, who ran 31 yards for a touchdown. Of course.

Tennessee’s offense wasn’t exactly stymied in the first half, but they certainly stalled out without anything to show for it and were scoreless in the first half. Similarly, the defense was doing some good things but wasn’t exactly keeping Georgia from gaining yards. They forced a couple of punts and held the Bulldogs to a field goal before finally giving up the game’s first earned touchdown late in the first half. The teams went to the locker room with Georgia leading 17-0.

Georgia opened the second half with a touchdown, making the score 24-0 and threatening to runaway with it like we’d all feared, but Tennessee put together a 10-play, 75-yard drive on its first possession of the second half, capped by a 37-yard touchdown pass from Jarrett Guarantano to Josh Palmer.

In the most interesting part of the game, the Tennessee defense then held, the offense punted, and the defense held again, and then the Vols added another touchdown when Guarantano hooked up with Ty Chandler for a 35-yard touchdown.

At that point, it was a 12-point game (Georgia 24, Tennessee 12) with 11:10 to go in the fourth quarter. The Vols had the last two scores and its defense had forced two short drives that ended in punts for Georgia. But the Bulldogs sealed the game on their next possession with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that drained 7:39 off the clock, and that was the end of that.

A fumble by running back Jeremy Banks on Tennessee’s next play signaled the beginning of garbage time, as it gave Georgia a short field, another touchdown, and a final score of 38-12.

The bad

Even though the outcome of the game was in doubt for a longer period of time than anticipated, it was clear to both the eye and the box score that Georgia was the much better team and it was still another 26-point loss for the Vols. Georgia had 25 first downs to Tennessee’s 11, and they had 410 total yards to the Vols’ 209.

The Vols still started slow, still found themselves victim to The Weirdness, and still made several crucial mistakes. Marquez Callaway going out with an apparent concussion is very bad news for him and for the team as well. Also, there’s at least one guy in the secondary who appears to be actively avoiding contact.

The good

On the other hand, this is what the team looks like when they’re not turning the ball over an unnatural six times in a single game, and although it’s not yet up to standards, it’s not embarrassing. The guys appeared to be tougher. There was more falling forward, gaining a couple of yards at the end of a play rather than losing a couple. The offense scored some points against a terrific defense, and the defense held Georgia to a respectable 31 points until garbage time.

There’s still a lot of work to do, and there are still several challenging weeks ahead, but you can see the glimmers of something good beginning to take shape.

That video of Vols defensive coordinator Chris Rumph (starting at 13:59) talking about why he does what he does is one of my all-time favorite things. I’ve tried (and usually failed) many times to explain to friends and family that one of the reasons I love college football is that it’s simultaneously just a game and not just a game. Rumph gets at the same notion when he says that football is about life. It’s not just about tackling and sacks and the obvious football stuff, it’s also about who you are becoming while you’re doing what you’re doing.

To Rumph, his primary purpose isn’t to teach football but to disciple and mentor kids, and football is merely the context through which he does it.

That there is something underneath the surface of football that makes it even more special resonates with me as a fan. As much as I enjoy the games and everything that comes with them, I also beam with pride when I see evidence of the guys growing up before the cameras and the crowds. Call me a sap, I don’t care. The game and the media and the crowd can at times deliver some particularly cruel blows to these college kids, and I cheer every time they get back up, weather the storm, and get back to work chasing their dreams, stronger in life for the lessons they’ve learned on the field.

College football is great and fun on the surface, but it’s the below-the-surface stuff that keeps me coming back even when things aren’t going well on the field. It’s a bitter pill, but the truth is that sometimes – for players, fans, people in general – you grow more as a person when the results you’ve been striving and hoping for leave you disappointed. And the perseverance and determination make the success, when it comes, that much sweeter.

So, yeah. It’s not just about tackling and sacks and all the football stuff; it’s also about who you are becoming while you’re doing what you’re doing.

The fan experience

That truth applies to a multitude of contexts other than playing football, too, including merely watching people play football. I love the gamedays and the gameweeks and the moments and the winning when it comes, but often, when the appeal of those things wanes, I look underneath the surface for something to learn.

Suffice it to say, over the next month or so we Vols fans are going to have a lot of opportunities to learn some non-football stuff.

You can’t preempt pain

One of the things I’ve already learned over the course of 13 years of service as a long-suffering Vols fan blogging about the team is that you simply cannot dull pain just by bracing for it.

It’s not like we haven’t tried. As I said just a little over a month ago when anticipating this season’s mistakes, we often tell ourselves in advance of what we know will be challenging seasons that X number of wins is a reasonable expectation. We stoically brace for a loss before the game but then become enraged when we actually witness in real time the maddening details that contribute to that loss.

You can’t avoid the pain just by imagining it beforehand. You just can’t. You have to experience it.

Rumph would be quick to point out that this is as true in life as it is on the football field and in the stands. And one can help prepare you for the other. Pardon a brief digression into the personal while I explain.

Non-football stuff

Have you ever had to put a pet down? I have. It was a difficult but rational decision to conclude that we no longer had a choice but to relieve our beloved dog Oreo of her misery a couple of years ago. And yet I was totally unraveled by the details when the day came to actually do it. I hadn’t imagined standing over her whispering “You’re a good dog, you’re a good dog” over and over into her ear as her body relaxed on the table. I was prepared, but not for that.

Have you ever had a loved one on hospice? I knew my mom was going to lose her battle with cancer last year, but knowing it afforded no protection from the torment of the process. I was still completely undone sitting beside her, attempting to sing her favorite songs with a broken voice, wondering which of those difficult breaths would be her last. Knowing that day would come didn’t make it easier.

I dwelled on all of this last Sunday afternoon as I sat alone in an unsold tailgating chair in my Kingsport store after turning out the lights. I’d already known this past summer that the day would almost certainly come this fall that we’d have to close it down for good. I was at peace with knowing the time was approaching. But it didn’t actually happen until last weekend, and it sucked.

Life is going to throw you a bunch of crap in a variety of contexts, whether it’s something as serious as the loss of a loved one or something more trivial like watching your favorite sports team lose in spectacular new ways.

And even if you take the time to anticipate and prepare for the pain – in life, on the football field, in the stands –you can’t fully comprehend it until it comes time to experience it.

That’s the bad news, but there’s also good news: Anticipating and preparing for bad news and bad days can help you survive it, and when it’s over, you’ll be better for it.

Back to football

As I said earlier, football is just a game, and yet it’s also more than just a game. It’s about practicing and playing and cheering, and it’s about wins and losses and all of that other surface football stuff, yes. But it’s also about the underneath stuff, who we’re becoming while we’re doing what we’re doing. What we’re doing here is rooting for the Vols. It’s a relatively unimportant activity. But what important things might we learn while doing it?

By all accounts, the rebuilding Tennessee football team is headed for some potentially very bad days over the next month or so. No amount of knowing it, expecting it, or planning for it will shield us from the misery. It’s going to hurt. Absent some miracle (or just checking out as a fan), there’s no way around that.

What can we do about it? Hold on. Steel your resolve. Assume the crash position. Put a phonebook in your pants. Do whatever you need to do to get ready for a rough ride.

It’s not going to be fun, but better days await on the other side.

And when it’s finally over, we might just be stronger, wiser, and better for it.

For when it’s really important.

Ready?

Steady.

Go.

(This is a real list!)

It’s not easy to measure progress when you’ve taken a pair of 26-point losses to teams you talked yourself into beating leading up to game week. It’s only Friday, but I don’t think many of us are talking ourselves into much against Georgia. But it’s also possible – especially after a six-turnover performance – to swing too hard the other way.

It may feel like baby steps, but so far this team does a couple things really well, especially compared to their predecessors.

Third Down Defense

Let’s start with the most straightforward way to understand it: the Vols allow a conversion on 24.5% of opponent attempts (stats from Sports Source Analytics). That’s currently sixth-best in the nation. Last year the Vols allowed conversions on 45.2% of opponent attempts, 113th nationally.

But there’s more. What caught my eye on this stat was Bill Connelly’s advanced statistical profiles, where Tennessee is currently first in the country in defending third-and-medium.

We charted every one of the 49 third downs against the Vol defense this season. Jeremy Pruitt’s troops have allowed a dozen conversions. Five of them were in the second half of the West Virginia game. Tennessee hasn’t been great at stopping third-and-short: teams are 6-of-9 when needing three yards or less on third down. The Vols are 83rd nationally in Connelly’s categorization of thid-and-short.

But once it gets to 3rd-and-4+, it’s been a very different story. The Vols have allowed first downs on just 6-of-40 (15%) attempts of 3rd-and-4+. One of those was in garbage time on the final drive last week.

Tennessee may not be built to handle third-and-short right now, but they’ve done an excellent job so far handling everything else, especially when not facing West Virginia’s offense.

Explosive Plays in the Passing Game

As you’ve probably heard, Tennessee already has more plays of 50+ yards (six) in four games than they had all of last season (four). Five of those have come via the passing game, plus Ty Chandler’s run against UTEP. Only Hawaii, with the benefit of an extra game in week zero, has more 50+ yard passing plays so far this year; the Vols are tied with five other teams for second nationally.

What’s most impressive about that: Tennessee has only attempted 85 passes this year, 115th nationally.

Here are the SEC leaders in adjusted completion percentage on throws 10+ yards downfield: pic.twitter.com/2tvNLuCg2N

— CFB Film Room (@CFBFilmRoom) September 27, 2018

The Vols do indeed run the ball a lot, and I worry about our quarterback getting hit every single time we don’t. But when he gets it off, Guarantano has been pretty good at getting the most out of his attempts. He is currently fourth among SEC quarterbacks and 20th nationally at 9.1 yards per attempt. The bad news: Jake Fromm is third (10.7), and Tua Tagovailoa is first at…12.9? Get out of here with that. (Fulmerized).

These numbers, like many other things for Tennessee, may go south the next few weeks. But in the first four games, we may have also seen enough to suggest some truth here that might show up in November. And they are significant steps of progress from last year, even in the middle of a frustrating start in the win column.