Week one of the college football season has passed, and many fans across the country already have firm opinions on the state of their teams. Whether their teams are winning the national championship or their head coaches should be fired immediately, overreaction season is in full effect.
For Tennessee, coming off a 56-9 win over the Furman Paladins Saturday, there really hasn’t been a ton of overreaction from the fan base. I’ve seen some concern with offensive line play and a little on the run game. Even though the Vols ran for 329 yards, some doubts remain. During Monday’s press conference, head coach Josh Heupel addressed things that are easy to fix.
“Yeah, a couple things on the edge, tight ends,” Heupel said. “They just got to clean up some of their fundamentals. A couple of it was just communication, a different front than what we anticipated and don’t block it right. End of the day, nothing major.
“It’s doing the little things. When you get ready to go on the road at night, the little things add up really quickly. Those are some of the small things that we’ve got to grow into to be ready to go play the way that we need to Saturday night.”
It was week one, and while it was Furman, it is not unusual for even the best teams to get settled in. Not to mention, coaches are usually still finding the right group of guys they can depend on throughout the season. This is especially true along the offensive line.
“New center playing,” Heupel said Monday. “Some of our issues, some things that we needed to clean up stem from communication, and that’s all five of them. Ultimately, during the course of the season, you’re going to need more than just five. Guys got their grades today. There’s areas of improvement for all of them. And we’ll see how we play it on Saturday night as we go through the week.”
When you look at the total body of work for Tennessee Saturday, it really had no glaring concerns. These things have been addressed and will be worked on in detail before Saturday.
The good news is there’s no dominant team to face this weekend. Not to discount Georgia Tech as a respectable opponent, but they opened with a 14-13 home loss to Colorado. The offense never finished the job. The Yellow Jackets ran for just a net of 51 yards, after Alberto Mendoza’s negative 22 sack yardage, and didn’t find the end zone on offense. Their only touchdown came on a kick return.
That’s a team still figuring things out after losing quarterback Haynes King, and it plays right into what Tennessee does well up front. From my perspective, the Vols will be better in all areas this weekend. As a result, they will put to bed any early-season concerns.
