One of the most overused cliches in sports today, without the profanity mind you, is one of Denzel Washington’s infamous lines from Training Day.

Even Jeremy Pruitt couldn’t help himself when talking about Tennessee’s new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney last month.

“It's about personnel and who your best players are and trying to get them on the right person on the other side, and I think he does a really good job of doing that,” Pruitt said.

“He's a guy that presents problems. He's not playing checkers. He's playing chess."

Well, with a porous offensive line last fall, not even a grandmaster could have unlocked Tennessee’s offense in 2018.

Tyson Helton was a bust, but Tennessee’s offensive DNA isn’t going to change. At least I don’t expect it to. Pruitt wants to run the ball and hit explosive plays off play-action. Chaney is charged with simply making the offense less schizophrenic.

There’s little doubt that Chaney is a better “fit” than Helton. Last season was Helton’s first as a full-time playcaller. Chaney lost that card 22 years ago.

The issue is whether Chaney is playing chess, checkers or Parcheesi, he’ll have the same pieces to work with in 2019.

The Vols return their starting quarterback, every wideout who caught a pass in 2018 and their top two tailbacks. Perhaps that’s a positive, and a veteran group improves with more experience.

But that same cast of characters ranked No. 108 in scoring offense (22.1 points per game), No. 122 in total offense (325.5 yards per game) and No. 88 in yards per play (5.46) last season. They didn’t have a single player on an All-SEC team, and likely won’t have a single preseason selection there, either.

No doubt there’s talent within the group, but it’s uneven.

Tennessee is counting on the veteran OC to work around the unit’s warts (i.e. a still questionable o-line, no true power tailback or gamechanger on the perimeter). So what will that look like?

Pruitt’s chess, not checkers quip was banal, but his comments about Chaney’s experience and ability to adapt to his available personnel do ring true.

To get the most out of playmakers like Ty Chandler, Jordan Murphy and others, perhaps Tennessee utilizes more jet-motion under Chaney (a staple recently at UGA). Maybe more split-zone blocking schemes to help out the OL?

We won’t truly see the balance and simplicity Chaney is expected to bring to Tennessee’s offense during the spring, but ideally, we at least get some clues as to what his stamp on the unit will be.