Tennesee v. Virginia
With a final score of 49-13, it certainly appears to have been a good game for the hyped up offense of Josh Heupel. The Volunteer offense has been oft reported as a “receiver friendly” scheme, one where the playmakers get wide open through no skill of their own and the QB merely has to know one of two places to put the ball in order to have Heisman quality stats. Hendon Hooker, Knoxville’s 2022 starter under center, came in fifth in Heisman voting despite missing multiple games. Jalin Hyatt won the Biletnikoff as the nation’s top receiver. Cedric Tillman went in the 3rd round of this past NFL Draft despite missing oodles of time last season. 2022 starting OT went top 10 in the NFL Draft. UT (the OG one) led the nation in scoring in 2022 and destroyed Clemson in the Orange Bowl, 31-14. In otherwards, this offense produced.
And yet, despite all the attention the passing game gets, it was the passing attack which held the Vols back in the team’s opening contest of 2023. Joe Milton was underthrowing receivers early and often. When Ramel Keyton got behind the entire Cavs defense on the first play of the team’s third drive, Milton’s pass was so behind Keyton he basically came to a full stop before the ball bounced off his hands. With transfer WR Dont’e Thornton in the endzone behind the defender, Milton threw short again, and the ball bounced off the beaten defender’s helmet. With Squirrel White coming back on a curl route, Milton bounced the ball off the grass yards in front of him. When Bru McCoy ran a comeback, off to the left, Joe threw the ball to far in front of his pass catcher, and the ball sailed out of bounds. After underthrowing his receivers through the first quarter, Milton missed McCoy over the middle when he lead his receiver right into the safety, and he sailed another pass over Keyton as well. With one ball over the middle, his receiver extended into the air as high as he could, but the ball still went off his finger tips. Additionally, Milton’s delivery often seemed slow and relaxed, giving defenders time to close in, with Keyton, McCoy, and White all getting lit up shortly after catches screen passes.
To be fair, Milton has significantly more football talent in his sixth grade cleats than I have ever had. This really is a case of nit picking. Milton threw for over 200 yards, completed 70% of his passes with two touchdowns while running for another pair of scores. He has likely whipped the ball further with his arm than I have ever even kicked the ball off a tee, bounces included. And Milton’s success was largely devoid of explosive plays; Keyton was the only receiver to catch a pass over 20 yards.
As up and down as things were at quarterback (again, a good day for most any other quarterback!), the ground game was productive. Tennessee gained nearly 300 yards rushing. Jaylen Wright, Tennessee’s leading rusher, went over 20 yards once, but still averaged nearly 10 yards per carry. Jabari Small had but better as the day went on, getting stuffed frequently early, but never getting tackled behind the line of scrimmage. Dylan Sampson scored four times on the day, three on the ground and once through the air. The offensive line moved Virginia players most of the day, including Miami transfer John Campbell recreating “The Blindside” by taking his defender nearly to the tunnel on one Sampson score.
Despite 49 offensive points and no forced turnovers, the defense was the real strength of the Vols. They collected 8 TFLs in the first half, and Virginia didn’t get into positive rushing yardage for good until their TD drive in the 3rd quarter. Tyler Baron was collapsing the right side of Virginia’s line over and over again from the first offensive snap. Virgnia’s QB, Monmouth transfer Tony Muskett, looked to be holding his team back most of the day. But after he left with a shoulder injury, his replacement completed only 2 of 7 passes, and made Muskett look good. The Vols defense had a few gaffes in the Cavs’ touchdown drive, but other than that, they clamped down hard, with numerous pass break ups against oversized receivers.
On the day, Tennessee lost the turnover battle. They had twice the penalties Virgnia did. Tennessee relied on multiple fourth down conversions to score their points, and started converted only one of their first seven 3rd downs. This is a team which played ugly, they still won by over 5 touchdowns. They left 21 potential points on the field, and still were able to substitute their second team offense for basically the entire final frame. They got on inside runs multiple times, right into the teeth of Virginia’s strength, and still averaged 5.5 yards per carry. If this team fixes their miscues, they could appear unstoppable.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Tennessee joined in the somber affair of recognizing the tragedy which befell Virginia last year, when a student shot his former teammates, killing three. A survivor, Mike Hollins, was UVA’s starting running back on the day.
Josh Turbyville, UT’s kicker, has a trebuchet for a leg. He kicked multiple balls out of bounds, resulting in great starting field position for the Cavaliers, but anything which went straight sailed out of the back of the endzone.
Nico Iamaleava got into the game in the last fifteen minutes, piloting a touchdown drive while going 2/3 passing and rushing for 8 yards.