The Monday 3-2-1
It's time for the 3-2-1 report. Three observations, two questions and a prediction as the Vols continue to struggle and remain winless in SEC play.
Three things we learned in the Vols loss to Kentucky:
Ty Chandler can play – It obviously comes as no shock to anyone that he can, but Chandler showed he could play. Chandler had 120 yards on 22 carries and 2 touchdowns. He had another touchdown called back on an 80 yard run. Everyone knew Chandler had speed, but it was his power the impressed on Saturday night.
He ran over safeties and seemed to fall forward finishing runs. Pretty amazing Chandler only had 27 carries in the first seven games. The question now is how many touches Chandler gets as John Kelly returns.
Tennessee's run defense is going in the wrong direction – Tennessee gave up 289 yards on the ground to Kentucky and in the last four games, Bob Shoop's unit has given up 1,052 yards and are averaging givin up 5.7 yards a quarter.
Speaking of quarters, the rush defense gets worse by the quarter.
Avg. rush by qtr vs. UT defense
1st 73-294, 4.0
2nd 99-503, 5.1
3rd 97-574, 5.9
4th 96-597, 6.2
Redzone woes – When you go 6 for 6 in the redzone, it should be considered a good night, especially for an offense that has been struggling the way this offense has struggled. But when 4 of those 6 redzone wins were field goals and not touchdowns it's not a good day.
For the year now, Tennessee has 14 touchdowns in 32 redzone trips, a disappointing 44%.
Two questions heading into Southern Miss week:
1 – Does John Currie speak?
Florida has made a coaching change. The pressure and the heat is mounting on John Currie to do something. On Sunday, Currie and Butch Jones met as they have basically every Sunday this fall. Jones then had a regular Sunday evening staff meeting starting preparations for Southern Mississippi. Jones, we are told, will partrol the sidelines Saturday against Southern Mississippi
Currie has not made any comment on his football program this month. No one we have spoken really believes that Jones has a legit chance to return in 2018 so what does Currie do now. Does he stay quiet and remain status quo this week?
Does he make a statement saying Jones will be evaluated at the end of the year and take some pressure off of the program and the day to day firing watch it has been on.
2 – What does Saturday look like?
Yes, there are questions about Tennessee's health on the offensive line. Yes, there are questions about the growth and development of Jarrett Guarantano and there are concerns about stopping the run defensively.
But those aren't the questions everyone is curious about on Saturday. The questions are about the environment in Neyland Stadium. How many people will be there? How loud will the boos be? How many fire Jones T-shirts will there be? Saturday night's atmosphere has all the makings of being a bad/ugly atmosphere.
What's it really going to be like?
One prediction: The anger, the rumors and the week to week uncertainty will continue as Jones patrols the sidelines
Tennessee will go about their business the week status quo with a regular game routine and the distaste among the Vol fans will keep growing. A good bit of the distain will continue to shift towards John Currie by many fans.
As for the rumors, they won't die down, especially with the Board of Trustees meeting later in the week.