Each week during the football season, former Tennessee assistant coach Doug Mathews joins us to share his thoughts on the Vols. Join The Coach each Saturday morning at 9 a.m. EST for a Big Orange-slanted look at the day's action on Forklift Systems Football Saturday, and again each Sunday morning at 9 a.m. E.S.T. for Big Orange Sunday, presented by Superior Seed & Supply on WGFX FM, 104.5 in Nashville, for a look each week at the state of Tennessee football, what just happened, and what lies ahead.

Now to nitpick what was a great opening win--what were your thoughts on the ground game? It's been such a hot topic the last month, and while there were some signs of improvement from last year, there also looked like room for improvement.

First off, as you say were nitpicking a little here, because that was exactly the kind of win Tennessee needed to start off this season.

As far as the run game goes, let's start with the positives, and the big one is that we didn't lay the ball on the ground, at least from the backs. We had one on a poorly executed quarterback sneak, and that's something I'm sure we'll work on. That's not insignificant coming out of the first game. It's also something this team has had a problem with over the last couple of seasons and you can tell that Jay Graham and the coaches have done a good job of stressing ball security.

The offensive line wasn't dominant, but watching them I thought they played with a lot of aggression, thought they really came off the ball well and overall just looked better. Still have a lot of room to get better, but I've been saying I think this is going to end up being a good offensive line and I still think that.

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