Upon Further Review: Vol-Stration

“The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.”

Unlike Harvey Dent, I don’t know when things will get better on Rocky Top, but the sun did rise in Knoxville this morning, and perhaps sometime Tennessee will be Tennessee again.

But not anytime soon.

No college fan base has had their patience tested more than Big Orange Nation over the last decade. Tennessee fans' loyalty and resiliency has been remarkable, filled full of blind belief just because.

More than 100,000 folks packed Neyland Stadium on Saturday ... and then we’re subjected to watch that.

Welcome to the Tennessee Turnstile of the Five Stages of Grief.

While the Vols have had some absolutely devastating losses to the Florida Gators over the years, Saturday night was rock bottom in the series’ recent history.

The losses in 2015 and 2017? Pfff.

Yesterday at home — with a charged crowd for Jeremy Pruitt’s SEC opener, a ton of blue chips prospects in attendance and the ’98 Vols roaming the sidelines — Tennessee laid a complete egg against an average, at best, Florida team.

“About every way you could self destruct, we tried to find that way,” Pruitt after Tennessee had six turnovers Saturday.

“We wanted to make the other team beat us. We wanted to raise our level of play. We did that to some point, but when you turn the ball over, it’s hard to see the production or positive things.”

The Vols were outcoached in the blowout loss, but the staff doesn’t block, catch or carry the football. Much of Saturday’s self-inflicted shellacking was poor execution by the players and revealed this rebuild is going to take a lot longer than even the most optimistic Tennessee fan believed.

Bowl hopes? Another 0-8 season in the SEC is now a real possibility.

If the West Virginia game was necessary humbling for an overconfident program, then Saturday was a harsh reality check — both for the team and the fan base.

How many times must Big Orange Nation longingly wish to see the light at the end of another rebuild tunnel? That number is certainly being tested because if Saturday wasn't the nadir, it's coming.

Tennessee is looking at another 0-for-October and the best case scenario is that Pruitt’s first-year team doesn’t get further physically and mentally battered over the next month.

Tennessee is already beaten and bruised after a brutal 2017 season, and there’s no quick-fix pill for the psychological scars that currently plague this program.

They want to win, but they don't know how.

Saturday was a real chance for Pruitt and Tennessee — in a year any true realist would acknowledge was going to be tough anyways— to give a rabid fan base something to hang their hopes on for the future.

Instead, Vol Nation is once again being asked to be patient.

For the last decade, that's the only promise that's been fulfilled on Rocky Top.

Each week, I’ll rewatch the tape so you don’t have to. Here’s a skinny dozen of quick-hitters, analysis and final thoughts…

1. Rapid report card grades!

QB: D

RB: C-

WR: B

TE: D

OL: D

DL: B

LB: C

DB: B

ST: C

2. So what happened on the six turnovers?

No. 1 Florida sends just five against a 7-man protection, but the Gators disguise the blitz and totally confuse Tennessee tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson and tailback Tim Jordan. The pair both block the safety blitzing instead of picking up the edge rusher, who gets a free shot on Jarrett Guarantano.

No. 2 Tennessee tailback Tim Jordan shows screen immediately against a four-man rush, alerting a UF defensive end to drop into coverage off his rush lane. Guarantano throws it right to him. Pruitt said, “Just a very bad sequence of plays right here. We’ve got to have more awareness as a quarterback. I don’t think we’re probably in the best call we could be in on 3rd and long here, but we’ve got to throw the ball away if it’s not there.”

No. 3 Austin Pope’s fumble was the ultimate microcosm of Tennessee’s night. The Vols make a great call on 4th and 1, the play was well executed by all 11 guys … until a hustle play by a UF cornerback caused the H-back to literally knock the ball out of his own hand mere yards away from the end zone.

No. 4. The Vols actually forced a punt after Pope’s touchback, but after moving the football back deep into UF’s territory on the very next drive, the absurdity continued, as Ryan Johnson made a poor snap and Keller Chryst fumbled the catch.

No. 5 Shawn Shamburger was fighting for extra yards on the opening kickoff of the third quarter, but two Florida defenders did a nice job yanking out the football. Meanwhile, Pruitt was rather disappointed on his TV show that four Tennessee players were standing there around Shamburger not blocking anyone or diving for the loose ball.

No. 6 Once again, Guarantano is hit hard even in a 7-man protection. Brandon Johnson is flanked by two UF defenders, including the safety who make a diving pick

3. Tennessee actually had more sacks (2) than UF (1), but by my count, Guarantano was hit five times and pressured at least another five times. I imagine the OL grades will be grim from PFF this week.

4. Offensive coordinator Tyson Helton did not have a good night yesterday. He made some strong calls — the pass to Pope being the most notable — but he was overly conservative and extremely predictable on early downs. When in doubt, Tennessee was probably running the ball left on first and second downs.

In the first half, Tennessee had 26 snaps on first or second down and it ran the ball 21 times for 61 total yards.

Throughout the week, there was an expectation that the Vanilla Vols would break out some new stuff, but aside from flexing Dominick Wood-Anderson out wide four times Saturday, there weren't many new wrinkles.

The move with DWA, giving the big tight end 1-on-1 coverage against a linebacker, wasn't really effective either. The play did pickup a PI flag in the end zone one time, but it didn’t work again. DWA dropped a fourth down pass and was 0 of 3 on targets his way Saturday.

5. Tennessee’s overall rushing stats were gruesome.

David Reece and CeCe Jefferson were big returnees for UF, but this was still a rush defense that had been gashed all season. And yet, Tennessee had HALF — 26 of its 52 rushing snaps — go for two yards or fewer. By my count, the Vols ran the ball to the left of the center (i.e. behind Johnson, Johnson or Locklear and Smith) 32 times for 3.75 yards per carry. Take away Madre London’s 43 yard run in the third quarter though and that average dips to 2.7 yards per carry.

6. There’s no doubt the run blocking (by the OL, TEs and FBs) was pitiful at times, but Tennessee’s tailbacks, namely Tim Jordan, didn’t hit the hole with a much assertiveness Saturday either. Pruitt’s concern about Jordan’s freelancing was evident on the safety. The sophomore tried to bounce the ball outside even though the Vols were running an iso-power. Pope missed a block, but Jordan also didn’t run to the right spot. That’s not the time to try and make a big play. Get the ball out of the end zone and live to fight another down.

7. I said for Tennessee to win on Saturday: The OL had to play well (NOPE), the DL had to get pressure (AT TIMES), win the turnover battle (YIKES) and Pruitt had to coach aggressive (YUP). Tennessee’s coach went for it on fourth down twice in the first half and dialed up a perfectly-timed onside kick. As was the case all evening, execution was awful though.

8. Florida (79) finished with more penalty yards than Tennessee (58) but I thought the Gators, especially upon replay, got away with a few more PIs. Callaway was mugged twice on throws for no calls. Also, CeCe Jefferson would've picked up a 20K fine for his hit on Guarantano if this were the NFL. I'd expect Tennessee to send that tape to the league office. Just dirty.

9. Defensively, Alexis Johnson had a couple really big snaps — including a great team defense play when Theo Jackson read UF’s wheel route and Johnson pushed the pocket for a big sack.

Johnson aided Kyle Phillips on another ferocious sack, but UF also had real success running right at Tennessee defensive tackle. While Shy Tuttle didn’t have the raw stats of AJ, I thought the senior was much more disruptive. I’ll be curious what the PFF stats say, but I imagine Theo Jackson will not find his grade very satisfying. Jackson was in the right area several times Saturday, but Florida aggressively picked on him in coverage. The sophomore safety was also the culprit on the missed executed onside kick. It was his responsibility to hit the UF player, but instead he went for the football.

10. If you’re looking for a sliver of silver linings from Saturday, I thought Tennessee was solid overall defensivley. Alontae Taylor's forced fumble was a fantastic play.

The Vols weren’t good in the red zone and Freddie Swain exposed the secondary’s lack of speed, but that was a pure bust on the backend. As Pruitt said, “It goes from being a positive play to being a 67-yard touchdown. We just can’t do that.”

Feleipe Franks was fine yesterday. He was who we thought he was. He has a big arm but is wildly inaccurate. He threw two darts — and both went for huge touchdowns. After starting the game 4 of 5 for 100 yards, Franks threw eight straight incompletions. He was awful on third down, but because of all of Tennessee’s giveaways, the Vols weren’t able to capitalize on UF’s sputtering offense.

11. Lastly, I do think it again bears repeating that Tennessee’s fans deserve credit for once again packing Neyland Stadium and coming out in full force despite the program’s recent ills. The place was going nuts pregame, with recruits (who I talked with many on the sideline) buzzing about the atmosphere. Based on the support of this program, you’d never know Tennessee has lost 10 straight conference games.

As Pruitt said, “It was probably as great an environment as I’ve ever seen.”

Attendance will undoubtably dip over the rest of the season, but GBO did it’s part Saturday. The team simply didn’t deliver.