We waited 9 months for this past Saturday to arrive. A new coaching staff which would surely inject new life into a roster that, while talented on paper, just never seemed to reach their potential under the last staff. So it was especially excruciating to see our defense carved up by Heisman hopeful Will Grier who is now 2-0 against our beloved Vols.
But all is not lost, folks. There's still a season to play and there's reason for relative optimism if you know where to look. Our secondary will not face a QB and WR pairing of that caliber again this year although it will see some talented passers such as Tagovailoa, Fromm and Lock.
It's only one game but I think we can safely say that Alontae Taylor is our best corner back. He was in excellent position 90% of the game Saturday. He's an example of what this coaching staff filled with DB coaches can accomplish with the right talent. You have to remember, Alontae is a converted WR who had no idea how to play DB when he got here. We really need another guy to come on though. Thompson has the talent but he just arrived this past summer. It's going to take him some time to figure it out. He's also a guy who was primarily used in High School as an offensive weapon. But he's going to figure it out. The talent is clear. The want-to is there. It's only a matter of time and the sooner the better.
After a dreadful start our offensive line came together to do some good things. What is missing out of that unit now is consistency. The issue does not get any better with the news that our starting center, Brandon Kennedy is now out with a knee issue but someone will step up and it appears that someone will be Ryan Johnson who played some center on Saturday and has been repping as the reserve for some time in camp. Of course someone will have to step up to take his place at RG now. There are candidates such as Jerome Carvin, K'Rojhn Calbert, and Chance Hall who played a little RG on Saturday but did give up the Vols' only sack on his first snap at the position. The offensive line will develop cohesion the more they play together. I do think it's important to figure out who your 5 are going to be and rep them to the maximum. Stick with them in games. No rotating other guys in or out. Find out what you have and stick with them.
Wide Receiver was the rare bright spot Saturday. There were few if any drops and there were guys getting yards after the catch. It's a nice safety blanket for Guarantano knowing he can put a ball in an area and his guys are going to go get it. There didn't appear to be any issues with guys getting separation when they had to.
And a piece on the positives at this point would be lacking if we didn't mention the running back stable. Chandler didn't do much prior to taking a knee to the head which cut his day short, but we already know what he can do. He can be a feature back if he needs to be but we are most likely going to see a committee approach to running the ball. Tim Jordan with his 118 yards on Saturday looked every bit as capable running the ball as Chandler and freshman Jeremy Banks looked like he can help too. I would hope going forward we'd see a heavy dose of those 3 guys against virtually every team we play.
Every team that I've seen switch from a 4-3 defense to a 3-4 scheme has struggled the first year of the transition and I don't expect this team to be any different. There are just a ton of adjustments to make and this defense is more complicated than maybe we were led to believe. There are lots of checks to make and adjustments to do within the scheme on virtually every play and it's honestly a lot for guys to get accustomed to. The good news is we will get better with every game we play. Florida will also present a challenge but we should be better equipped to deal with it after two tuneup games and three more weeks of practice.
The moral of this story is to not lose your mind over these losses. They are unavoidable and we should treat them as such. Just know that the team you see now is not the one you will see in November when we have most of our winnable games and remember, we are assembling a top 10 class that could be even better than expected and those guys are going to play early. If you get too down after a loss go to Rivals and take a look at our commit list. Tennessee is not a program you can keep down forever.
