Vols enter SEC play an expected work in progress

The fact remains, this team should be 3-0 and halfway to bowl eligibility. The reality is that the Vols are 1-2 after Saturday’s 45-0 rout of Chattanooga.

The truth is that whether this team was 3-0 or 1-2, they are simply an unknown work in progress.

For the third straight game, the Vols started a different combination on the offensive line. Defensively, they started another combination in the secondary.

Darnell Wright repped at right guard this week for the first time in his Vol career and he started six days later. K’Rojhn Calbert, who hadn’t played on the offensive line all season, started at right tackle. Calbert had repped minimally in the preseason at tackle.

Kenneth George had played very sparingly this fall but started at cornerback in place of Alontae Taylor.

The reality is that Tennessee’s lineup shuffle isn’t over. It will continue for weeks, if not all year, as this team tries to develop its identity.

And after three weeks of play, that’s where this team is heading into conference action. Still developing their identity.

“At wide receiver, I know what we are going to get with Jauan Jennings and Marquez Callaway. The other positions we are still learning a little bit about ourselves,” Pruitt said on what he knows about his team through three games.

“We are still kind of creating the identity of who we are on the offensive side of the ball. Defensively, kind of the same way. I would say in the first three weeks Henry To’oto’o has played as good as anybody. But we are looking for consistently from a bunch of different players. We have a bunch of them that there is not much difference in. Maybe some of them have been here for three years and they have a little bit more knowledge of what we are trying to get done. Maybe some of them have been here for six weeks and they are trying to learn on the fly. Our whole football team has to continue to be technical. We have to coach effort. We have to coach toughness. We have to have a good understanding of what we are trying to get done in all three phases. And we have to find some consistency. That’s what good football teams do.”

Tennessee is far from a good football team right now. That doesn’t mean they can’t be one six weeks from now. Again, the same would have been said of this team if they were 3-0 or 1-2.

The Vols struggle to stop the run (no surprise) and they struggle to run the ball. Chattanooga rushed for 151 yards. Pruitt said he new found offensive line made strides on Saturday. Tennessee rushed for 195 yards and averaged 5.0 yards a carry. But there was still inconsistency. The Vols rushed for 41 yards on their first five carries. They had 59 on their next 17 runs. After grossly under-throwing his first pass of the day, Jarrett Guarantano completed his next seven, three for scores. There were bright spots for sure. There were continued exposed issues as well.

I won’t say the Vols are where I thought they would be three weeks in because no one saw the Georgia State loss coming. Their identity heading into SEC play is what I thought it would be. Young, inexperienced and trying to figure it out. In the words of Phillip Fulmer, green and growing.

“I think we are definitely improving,” outside linebacker Darrell Taylor said. “We are playing a lot of young guys, who are getting a lot of experience and are improving each week.”

Taylor knows this team better improve a lot over the next six days because unlike many of his teammates he knows what’s coming next.

“SEC play is different than preseason play,” Taylor said. “Every game you have to come hard but the SEC is the best league in college football. We have to tell the guys who haven’t played in those situations that you have to go.”

Next Saturday afternoon, things change as the Vols enter the gauntlet of SEC play. The task to win is a large one. The task to continue to grow and develop is an essential one. But this Saturday was a win. A much needed victory for a team and a program with a second year head coach who is still very much unknown.

The question moving forward is how many questions can they solve.