Four weeks ago today. 8:13 to go in the third quarter against the Florida Gators. First-and-goal at the Florida 1-yard line. John Kelly was having a good game and had started this very drive with consecutive 12-yard runs.
We all remember what happened. Quarterback Quinten Dormady threw the ball on first down, and it was incomplete to Marquez Callaway. The Vols got one do over on the same drive, as Florida committed an unsportsmanlike penalty on second down and gave the Vols another 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line. But a false start moved them back to the 5-yard line, and one incomplete pass, one pass complete for a loss, and one interception later, and the Vols came away from the opponent’s 1-yard line with zero points.
You may also recall the explanation for that decision: The team had indeed called a run play on that first first down, but Dormady had also been taught to check to a pass if that particular defense presented itself, which it did. So he checked to the pass.
That’s not an unreasonable explanation, as long as the main lesson isn’t lost: If it happens again, make sure John Kelly gets the ball. No matter what.
Skip ahead to this afternoon. 1:13 to go in the fourth quarter. Tennessee, after a solid start to the game in which the offense was moving the ball but couldn’t get into the end zone, got absolutely shut down in the second half. And yet, with the game on the line, the team found some life and marched 73 yards to get to 1st-and-goal at the South Carolina 5-yard line with nine seconds left to play.
You don’t want to run the ball there, because five yards is a long way on the ground and the team had no timeouts and no way to stop the clock. Instead, you take a shot throwing the ball into the end zone, which is what Tennessee did. It triggered pass interference, and the Vols found themselves at 1st-and-goal at the 2-yard line with four seconds to play.
And this is where you want to give the ball to John Kelly. He’d been averaging 3.6 yards per carry, and this was your chance at a do over for the mistake made in the Florida game. You didn’t have to worry about the clock because it was almost certainly your last play. Because it’s your last play, you call your best play.
Instead, Tennessee tried a pass to Josh Smith, and it was incomplete.
But wonder of wonders, the play happened so quickly, that there was still one second on the clock.
Another do over.
And on their second chance for the last play of the game from the 2-yard line, they . . . ask the brand new dual-threat quarterback to throw a pass to a receiver. It was incomplete.
There’s no guarantee, of course, that Tennessee would have scored a touchdown if they had just handed the ball off to John Kelly. He was part of the offense that got mostly shut down in the second half. Maybe there’s some reasonable explanation for what happened.
But there’s no real argument for any better playmaker on the Tennessee offense than John Kelly, and after all of the discussion about not running the ball in short yardage for a score against Florida, you’d think they would have made the most of their do overs. If they had tried and failed, well, at least they would have failed with their best option.
It’s not like there weren’t any positives in this game. The offense was much more productive in the first half with Jarrett Guarantano adding an additional running threat. The defense also started strong again. And there was no evidence of players unwilling to play for Butch Jones or each other.
But once South Carolina adjusted to what Tennessee was doing well, the Vols’ staff struggled to make any adjustments that worked.
The inability to make in-game adjustments that work has been a theme for some time now. If they add an inability to learn from past mistakes to the mix, they’re going to make things very difficult for themselves.
They must make the most of their do overs. Who knows how many they have left?