The Day After

Tennessee’s 38-30 season opening loss to Georgia State has left the entire Vol Nation stunned. We review the season opening loss with The Day After.

HOT

Jauan Jennings — There were obviously few highlights in the loss. Jennings, is the healthiest he has been in a couple of years and it showed Saturday. Jennings had a career high 7 catches for 108 yards and a touchdown. Jennings was targeted 8 times and had 7 catches. Probably should have been targeted more.

NOT

Alignment — Pruitt mentioned multiple times in his post game press conference that his team had repeated issues lining up correctly on defense.

“There were lots of times we were lined up in the game where how we lined up based off the schematic scheme they ran, we didn’t have a chance,” head coach Jeremy Pruitt admitted. “The first thing we have to do is get lined up.”

Second half adjustments — Leading 17-14, Tennessee was late getting out of the locker room to start the second half and were just outplayed in all areas in the last 30 minutes. In the second half, Georgia State rushed for 160 yards. Tennessee (counting sacks) had -2 yards rushing and the Vols turned it over twice. The Vol tailbacks had 5 rushes in the second half. Eric Gray had 2, Tim Jordan had 3 and Ty Chandler didn’t have a second half carry.

Redzone — Tennessee’s offense was bad. In four redzone trips, the Vols scored just two touchdowns. Georgia state had five redzone trips and scored four touchdowns.

Turnovers —Turnovers have been an issue the entire pre-season for the offense. They were on Saturday as Tennessee fumbled 4 times losing 2 of them and Guarantano threw an INT. He threw a second INT but a pass interference nullified the Georgia State takeaway.

Guarantano sack/fumble — Down 28-23, Tennessee was moving. They had moved the ball in three snaps to the the Georgia State 49 yard line. Guarantano and center Brandon Kennedy were not on the same page resulting in a protection bust. Evan Jones blitzed from the cornerback spot sacking Guarantano causing a fumble that the Panthers turned into a touchdown and the win.

Georgia State’s opening drive of the second half — Down three, the Panthers had their way with the Vol defense to start the second half setting the tone for the final 30 minutes. Georgia State went 75 yards in 9 plays to take their first lead of the game.

Failed QB sneak — Up 14-7, Tennessee had a chance to separate themselves but couldn’t. Facing 3rd and 1, Tennessee went with their jumbo package and Guarantano was stood straight up failing to get the yard forcing Tennessee to punt.

Ty Chandler opening possession fumble — To open the game, Tennessee was trying to get the ball to Chandler in space, but Chandler couldn’t handle a swing pass that was a lateral. Georgia State recovered the fumble giving the Panthers the short field and an early 7-0 lead.

5 – Number of tailback carries in the second half.

4.7 — average yards per carry by the Georgia State running game on first down. The Panthers ran it 23 of 31 times on first down. In the second half, Georgia State averaged 5.2 yards a rush on first down.

2 — Total number of defensive penalties on Saturday. The number wasn’t high but the timing was terrible. Nigel Warrior was called for pass interference on what would have been a third down stop. Tennessee also had a chance to get off the field in the fourth quarter, but 12 men on the field turned a 3rd and 6 into 3rd and 1. Georgia State turned the 3rd and 1 into a first down, then a touchdown and a 12 point lead.

10 — Number of offensive lineman who played on Saturday. Tennessee tried some 10-12 different combinations as they clearly aren’t comfortable with any particular group of five guys.

There’s no game ball to be given out in a 38-30 loss. Jennings had a nice day. Brent Cimaglia made all three field goal attempts. But there’s no game ball and no joy on Rocky Top after that performance on Saturday.

Where do you start? There is a laundry list of issues for this program heading into week two. It starts in the line of scrimmage. Offensively will they settle in and play five guys? Defensively they simply got pushed around. How much can they grow from week one to week two.

Can they get organized? It looked like a fire drill at times with all the various packages and personnel they played. They were flagged twice for having 12 men on the field. On a Georgia State touchdown they ran an 11th guy out late. It was a mess. Can they clean that up in a week?

Lastly, can they clean up their mistakes. Offensively they had way too many missed assignments. Defensively they simply struggled to properly line up taking themselves out of the play before the ball is snapped.

There’s way more to work on than anyone would have ever imagined coming out of this opening weekend.