Sunday Best: Humble — But Obvious — Beginnings for the Vols vs. ETSU

Editor’s note:  With my esteemed colleagues taking care of the heavy postgame lifting as I’m handling my national college football obligations on Saturday, I wanted to do something a little different. Each Sunday from now through the end of the year, we’ll take a last look at the game before, pointing out some positives as we move through the various phases of the Jeremy Pruitt rebuild.

We’ll call it Sunday Best. Hope you guys enjoy…

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A lot of times throughout life, we’re not put in ideal situations. But you try to get through them, put your trust in the right place and endure. The fervent hope is that you’ll get stronger because of the trials and, some day, you’ll be rewarded for the work you did in the face of them.

If you’re a believer, this should sound familiar.

If you’re a Tennessee fan, you should try to look at the 2018 season in the same frame of mind.

Those playing and coaching and cheering on the Vols through what looks like yet another rebuilding campaign don’t want to be here. Don’t you think all those kids in orange and white wish they were dominant and winning games week-in and week-out? Don’t you know somebody used to championships like Pruitt has a hard time accepting that this year’s roster is nothing like the ones he coached at Alabama, Georgia and Florida State? And, of course, we all want to recapture the glory days.

Those ain’t coming in ’18.

But, you know what? That’s OK. We all need to hope that we’re building something that will last, finding playmakers, improving from week to week and that somewhere, along the way, we’ll be stronger for it. For the Vols, hopefully that will materialize not only in the growth of the players and the growing number of dependable guys on the roster, but also in the win column.

We talked about finding out where we were starting from last week after the 40-14 loss to West Virginia, even if that starting point wasn’t where we wanted. Will talked about gaining another data point yesterday after the 59-3 shellacking of ETSU.

I want to talk about the steady improvement we want to see and what we saw. Yes, we could harp all day on the struggles of the offensive line and how a pass-rush [or lack of one] against SEC opponents will get you crushed. Both of those things are true, but if we choose to talk about those, we forget the positives, and this year should be about enjoying wins when they come and accentuating the positives when they do, too.

There won’t be as many of both as we’d like, but we need to open our eyes and actually acknowledge them when they come.

I know the level of opponent downgraded significantly from West Virginia to ETSU, but I tried to view Saturday through the lens of “just us.” Just look at Tennessee and look for improvement, look for growth, look for development. I saw plenty. If the Vols progressively improve each week throughout the year as much as they did from Week 1 to Week 2, we’ll be happy with the end-of-the-season final product, even if we’re not happy with the final record.

The defense played faster, more aggressive and corralled several game-changing plays such as Darrin Kirkland’s pick-six and Bryce Thompson’s athletic defensive presence. Offensively, the O-line was a disaster, yes, but if you weren’t encouraged by several individual performances, you’re too hard to please.

We saw exactly what we needed to see from a game against the FCS Buccaneers. There was no way we could cure all ills yesterday, and we didn’t, but we saw that it perhaps won’t be as bad as we thought. Let’s take a look at some of Sunday’s Best:

• Thompson followed fellow freshman Alontae Taylor’s Week 1 performance by having his own show-up-and-show-out spot against ETSU. The freshman cornerback finished with four tackles, including two for a loss, an interception and a pass breakup. He was all over the field and displayed speed and athleticism that UT lacks on the back end. The only bad thing was he started in Taylor’s place; not Baylen Buchanan’s. Once Thompson and Taylor can be trusted to be on the field at the same time, the Vols will realize their most athletic defensive backfield.
• Junior college defensive lineman Emmit Gooden led the team with eight tackles and a sack. The late addition to Pruitt’s class has two years to play in Knoxville and is already better than any other defensive lineman. He’s an encouraging building block for the remainder of this season and for the future.
• If you aren’t excited about the wide receiving corps and the emerging weapons, you’re too hard to please. Marquez Callaway is off to a red-hot start, and he looks like one of the league’s top receivers. Toss in the emergence of Jordan Murphy and Josh Palmer, and the Vols have some weapons on the perimeter. Murphy’s camp is paying off with some big plays in the season, and Palmer looks more confident and a step faster than he did at any point last season. Most importantly, he’s catching the football.
• Tim Jordan is a good, solid back, and we haven’t even seen Ty Chandler truly unleashed yet. But Jeremy Banks is a load to bring down, and he’s exactly the kind of running back the Vols have been missing since Montario Hardesty. He is a violent runner who hits the hole with authority and finishes runs. It’s not a stretch to say UT’s most assertive running back is its youngest, and Pruitt already praises his leadership ability. He could be a special piece to this puzzle. Banks already may be my favorite player on this team.
• Theo Jackson and Shawn Shamburger weren’t always in the right places Saturday, but they too [like Thompson and Taylor] upgrade the athleticism in the secondary, so this was a step toward them proving their value to the coaches. The simple fact is the Vols need better athletes in the secondary than Buchanan and Micah Abernathy. It’s up to those guys to step up.
• Finally, there are reasons to remain encouraged about Jarrett Guarantano and to feel good about Keller Chryst, too. With the O-line issues, both likely will be relied on throughout the year. Neither is dynamic and both have limitations, but they don’t look like the kind of signal-callers who’ll get you beat. We’ll see in two weeks against Florida.

Next week, Tennessee gets another patsy in UTEP. Boy, the Miners are awful, so we won’t know a whole lot about the development of the team then, either. But what we can see is blossoming confidence, important reps and opportunities to improve.

Somebody said to me yesterday in the midst of that ugly start: “Man, this offensive line and pass rush won’t cut it. If this was an SEC team, we’d be getting killed.”

To which I replied, “Good thing it isn’t. One of those doesn’t come for another couple of weeks. We’ve got more time to marinate.”

By the time the hated [and also flawed] Florida Gators come to town, who knows what kind of team we’ll be?

If things go the way they have so far, we’ll be better than we were this week.