Health, Cleaner Play and Faster Starts Top Tennessee's November Checklist
On an open week Sunday, the usual look back at Saturday gave way to a look ahead. With November left to decide how Tennessee's season will be remembered, the priorities are less about new schemes than about a thin roster holding together, cleaning up its own mistakes, and playing its best football earlier in games.
Health sits at the top of the list because depth is limited on both sides of the ball. Injuries along the offensive line in October pushed Nic Moore to guard and gave Donovan Haslam more snaps, making the front more physical without really adding numbers. Sham Umarov is the sixth lineman, and Ory Williams would be the third tackle only out of necessity. At receiver, Tennessee is leaning most heavily on Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley, with Radarius Jackson the most trusted option behind them, while tight end DaSaahn Brame and running back Javin Gordon were among the few players to emerge in October. In all, the offense is built around roughly 19 players the staff trusts, and coordinator Jim Knowles is riding a similar number on defense, including six defensive backs, with no late-season reinforcements apparent.
The Vols also have to stop beating themselves. Through five SEC games, the offense has had 63 possessions and produced 20 scores, but also 10 turnovers, a missed field goal and two touchdowns called back by penalties, with only 11 three-and-outs along the way. The ball has moved; drives have too often died on their own. Tennessee scored every time it crossed midfield against Alabama, then came up empty five times in Auburn territory, four times at Arkansas and twice at South Carolina, a pattern it cannot repeat over the final four games.
Starting faster would help on both sides. Tennessee has no first-quarter touchdown in five SEC games, with 45 first-half points against 69 after halftime, and needed until the second quarter at South Carolina to find its rhythm offensively. This is not an offense built to chase big deficits against teams such as Kentucky and LSU. Defensively, the standard was set against Alabama, when sharp tackling limited explosive plays, then slipped at South Carolina with 13 missed tackles, Tennessee's worst mark of the season. Getting back to that earlier tackling form, and limiting big plays again, is essential if November is to go the way the Vols hope.