The Volquest 3-2-1

It’s time for our weekly 3-2-1, three observations, two questions and a prediction as the Vols look for answers after Saturday’s 48-17 loss at home to Kentucky.

1.Vols must find answers in the secondary —I knew that the loss of Nigel Warrior was tough given the way he played down the stretch last year, but I still thought this secondary would be the strength of the defense but it’s not. Some will say Mac Jones has throw the ball against everyone and he has. Some will say there was no pressure on Jones from the defensive front and there wasn’t. Apparently Pruitt felt like they couldn’t hold up in the back end if they blitzed. It didn’t matter as they could defend the Alabama passing game without it’s best weapon.

In the last three games, offenses are completing 73% of their throws and are averaging 13.5 yards per completion. And Tennessee has dropped multiple interceptions. Their last interception came in the Missouri game by Theo Jackson.

You are going to beat teams if you can’t defend the pass.

2. Darnell Wright is improving — I have been critical of the sophomore right tackle. I thought the first three games of the year he played slow. Speed rushers still can bother him, but the West Virginia native played better against Kentucky and I thought played his best game against Alabama. Wright handled edge pressure and did a nice job in the run game. Overall the offensive line played better. But it certainly feels like Wright is settling in at right tackle and is improving weekly.

3. Tennessee must come out of the half time locker room better — Against Missouri and South Carolina, Tennessee opened the second half with points. Since then the Vols have been terrible coming out of the locker room and they have been awful in the second half. At Georgia and against Alabama it was a turnover on their drive to start the half and against Kentucky it was a three an out. Defensively, the Vols have given up points as well. Tennessee looks lifeless and flat coming out of the locker room at half time. Against Alabama, the game was over, but at Georgia they had the lead and against Kentucky a score to start the half would have changed that game completely.

1. Can more young players practice well enough to get on the field? — When asked about more youth on the field end in a blow out in the second half, Pruitt said players had to earn the playing time in practice.

“To play at a high level in this league, and if you’re at the top level in this league, it’s probably the highest level in college football. There is a lot of preparation, practice habits and these young guys are not there yet. They’re not and it’s something this next week we’ll get them an opportunity. They have to earn the right to play because the guys that are ahead of them earn it in practice by the way they prepare. Just because you run fast or were so many stars coming out of high school, you have to earn it. That’s some of the learning curve when you get to college and these guys will, I’ve been around a lot of really good football players and some of them were really good as freshmen. Some of them were not and it’s different for everybody. Jalin Hyatt took another step, I thought he made a couple of explosive plays out there and they struggled to guard him. The other guys have the same type of ability that Jalin

has and some of it is based off circumstances that they went through in fall camp, but this will be a big week for them and I just told them that in the locker room. Not just them, there is about 14 other guys that need to really work hard so they can help the team.”

Can they do that the next two weeks apparently like Brian Maurer did last week going from 4th team to 2nd team? The bottom line is this team needs a spark and the fan base needs a spark as Austin Price mentioned in the post game podcast. That spark doesn’t just mean at receiver. It means all over the field.

2. What does the defense do to generate a pass rush? —In week one, DeAndre Johnson showed up big time with 2.5 sacks and as a unit the Vols had 4 sacks in the opener. Since then Tennessee has show very little pass rush. Over the last 4 games, Tennessee has just 6 sacks. Their lone sack on Saturday came on Alabama’s final drive. Pruitt has a predicament when it comes to pressuring the quarterback. If he blitzes his defense gets lit up in the passing game. If he doesn’t blitz the quarterback never has to move in the pocket. Where does the newly self appointed defensive line coach find a pass rush at for the pack half of the season?

Tennessee will continue to struggle to score — In the Vols three losses, they have scored 38 offensive points after scoring 59 in the first two games. The Vols are obviously inconsistent at quarterback and they struggle to drive the length of the field on a regular basis. Tennessee’s receivers outside of Palmer and Hyatt struggle to get open and the Vol run game struggles to have a big play. The Vols longest rush of the year is 22 yards. And they only have two runs of 20+ yards.

Because of he lack of explosiveness offensively scoring will continue to struggle for points.