The year 2017 is going to be especially significant for Butch Jones’ Tennessee. Despite playing in a fairly unimpressive SEC East and bringing recruiting classes that have ranked amongst the top 15 in the country, Jones’ Vols have yet to win 10 games in a season or win the division.
The disappointment of 2016 led to some major staff shakeups, particularly on offense, where the Vols bid adieu to coordinator and quarterbacks coach Mike DeBord. In his place, they hired Mike Canales of Utah State as QB coach, and promoted TE coach Larry Scott to OC and play-caller.
The first challenge will be in Atlanta’s new stadium against Paul Johnson’s Georgia Tech (Labor Day, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN), which went 3-0 against the SEC East in 2016.
This could be a relatively nice time to draw the Yellow Jackets.
The Volunteers open with Georgia Tech and Indiana State before inaugurating the SEC East race at Florida. The challenge in GT and Johnson’s flexbone offense is comparable to the struggle teams have in preparing for the service academies. The Yellow Jackets’ offense isn’t similar to any other Tennessee will face and requires a careful approach.
They have a variety of plays that teams don’t normally face, but their bread-and-butter is the triple option.
The threats are first the dive option to the fullback (or B-back, in GT’s parlance) behind a double-team block, then the outside pitch to an A-back. This year’s starting A-back will be Clinton Lynch, who ran for 415 yards at 11.2 yards per carry in 2016. After that is the QB keeper.
The need to stop the downhill option and the quick-hitting outside pitch often results in a seam for the QB to exploit, like prospective starter Matthew Jordan does in this example. In Johnson’s two seasons in which Tech won 10 games or more, his quarterbacks ran for 1,000 yards (2009’s Joshua Nesbitt and 2014’s Justin Thomas, who’s gone after becoming one of GT’s best QBs in years).
When the QB is unable to hit that seam and do damage with his legs, the offense tends to stall out. Jordan is experienced at hitting the crease, but he’s not particularly explosive. That should make things a bit more forgiving for the Vols, if they have some confusion.
The biggest potential advantage, other than Thomas’ departure, comes from the fact that Tennessee can dedicate extra time to avoiding that confusion. Drawing the Jackets in Week 1 is better than drawing them on shorter notice ... though flexbone coaches often say they have the same opportunity in return, and the Vols had a tough time handling Appalachian State the week before their primetime battle with Virginia Tech in 2016, barely escaping with two wins.
This is also a good test for a new Tennessee offense.
UT’s biggest question, like GT’s, is QB. Three-ish-year starter Joshua Dobbs came within 54 passing yards and 169 rushing yards of having a 3,000-1,000 season in 2016 and was the engine for most of Jones’ tenure.
His replacement will likely be junior Quinten Dormady, a former four-star plucked out of a San Antonio suburb. Dormady is a 6’4 passer whose greatest strength is operating from the pocket.
That makes for a different offense, but the Volunteers are stocked across that side of the ball. When a team has a less mobile signal caller, he’ll need a few key features.
The first is protection. Beyond no longer having a scrambling QB to punish the pass rush, it’s not feasible to make the most of a dropback attack if the QB can’t find room to step up. The other is a TE who can account for the sixth defender in the box. If you can’t block a six-man front, teams will sit on the common passing routes and squeeze the life out of an offense.
Finally, the team needs good receivers, ideally two reliable guys, to prevent opponents from doubling the go-to guy in key moments.
The Vols have an OL that includes returning starting tackles Drew Richmond and Brett Kendrick and might go eight or nine deep. At tight end, the Vols are in good shape, with starter Ethan Wolf returning and backed up by senior Jakob Johnson. There’s enough depth to mix in double-TE looks and enough versatility to flex these guys out in a big, spread set. At receiver, Tennessee returns junior Jauan Jennings, their second-leading receiver who’ll need to become a star.
Dormady might have enough weapons to really do damage. In the spring game, he expertly went through progressions, executing a fourth down here after the defense doubled and denied the easy routes over the middle.
And then hitting opportunities down the field, such as this wheel route to the younger Wolf brother, Eli:
Dormady has good footwork and throws a consistent ball. When you combine that with mastery of a dropback system and enough talented receivers, you can build an offense that’s pretty dominant.
The Georgia Tech defense lacks a proven pass-rusher, but returns six out of seven starters in the backfield and had some success down the stretch in 2016.
The Yellow Jackets prefer a style of quarters (four-deep) coverage in which the nickel serves as a third cornerback and frees up either safety to play aggressively, robbing inside routes and coming up to stop the run.
Starting safeties Corey Griffin and A.J. Gray were first and third on the team in tackles a year ago and will be key in matching the bigger Vols in the middle of the field.
The challenge in playing this way is evident from the clip above and the size of the cushions offered up by GT’s cornerbacks. This style concedes the flats, so a quick-triggered QB throwing to good athletes outside can cause real problems.
If Dormady can shred the Yellow Jackets’ experienced secondary, that could be a sign that Butch’s breakthrough is finally coming.