Breaking Down Tennessee's Offensive Scheme Changes

[lukeneyland]

No it’s NOT an excellent post.

What is wrong with you all
??

You all are acting like our offense suddenly changed in June in 2025.

Does anybody remember what Nico said??
“Y’all are going to like our new offense “
- pre spring practice

1) This staff was fully going to run this NEW OFFENSE with Nico.

2) That means the coaches knew this and agreed with papa Nico (and anybody else with eyes) that changes needed be made

3) Be damn thankful we have a HC that is good enough to change!! Jumbo Fisher finally hired Petrino as OC at Texas AM because Jimbos offense was trash. It didn’t save him, because Petrinos offense was kind of bland too.

Aguilar does process things better, but PEOPLE this is what the WHOLE OFFENSE has been practicing all off-season - since before he even got here.

What did Aguilar say in his interview?
He had to do his own walkthrough and then do reinstall over the summer.

I don’t know what inspired Heupel to make changes but I guarantee you it wasn’t that idiot dad

 

[RandomUTfan]

Good video highlighting the new wrinkles in Josh Heupel's offensive scheme. In short, we are no longer exclusively wide splits. We are running more tight and bunch formations, more motion, more pro style shotgun, a few pistol sets and more shifts from wide sets to tight sets and vice versa. We have incorporated more sophisticated route combinations and the power running game is as good as ever. This film study does a really good job of highlighting just how vicious we are in the run blocking game. We have a mean and fierce bunch of guys on the offensive line.

Thanks for posting this, brother.

 

[RockyTop140]

Love it. Now defenses have more to think about when playing us. It also gets rid of the negative recruiting pitch we’ve heard for years now

 

[barney]

whats really wild is when you start to compare our pass pro and run blocking to, say, Oklahoma. We look like a well-oiled machine. They look sloppy and poorly coached.

 

[barney]

CJH is now in his fifth season at the helm of the Vols. The team finally has the personnel required to execute his game plans. Until now, we have had success game planning to the strengths of the players. This is indeed a sign of a good coaching staff; however, we now are beyond that. It will be very interesting to see the trajectory of this particular team. I think it is amazing the offense is clicking with a QB that arrived in Knoxville on May 12.

I don't really see it that way. Tennessee's offense in 2022 was a program-historic unit that had NFL talent all over the field. I don't think his gameplan or offensive philosophy is a static thing and I don't think Heupel particularly wants to be in 12-personnel all the time. They are adjusting the offense to:

-best fit the available skill sets and personnel on their team
-adjust to rule changes (i.e. headsets, 2-minute warning, out of bounds substitutions)
-respond to high level changes in defensive philosophy: coverage shells are much more committed to taking away deep shots than they were several years ago with quarters and drop coverage etc.)
-respond to how defenses are scheming against Tennessee's veer and shoot offensive such as: late safety rotations into the box, 3 safety looks etc.

Heupel has never been super committed to any single offensive philosophy. He evolves every year to best position his players to be successful. That is a sign of a great offensive coach. The qualites of his offense are: he wants to play fast, he wants to simplify the offense for quarterbacks, he wants to be balanced, and he wants to run run run the football.

 

[chuckiepoo]

He changed as he felt like his QB would be able to handle the change.

Edit: @barney yeah. That

I hope it’s more a case of matching scheme to talent and experience. Heup wasn’t riding the turnip truck with ‘sparsgus.

 

[volfan102455]

No it’s NOT an excellent post.

What is wrong with you all
??

You all are acting like our offense suddenly changed in June in 2025.

Does anybody remember what Nico said??
“Y’all are going to like our new offense “
- pre spring practice

1) This staff was fully going to run this NEW OFFENSE with Nico.

2) That means the coaches knew this and agreed with papa Nico (and anybody else with eyes) that changes needed be made

3) Be damn thankful we have a HC that is good enough to change!! Jumbo Fisher finally hired Petrino as OC at Texas AM because Jimbos offense was trash. It didn’t save him, because Petrinos offense was kind of bland too.

Aguilar does process things better, but PEOPLE this is what the WHOLE OFFENSE has been practicing all off-season - since before he even got here.

What did Aguilar say in his interview?
He had to do his own walkthrough and then do reinstall over the summer.

If you truly believe that the coaches took advice from Papa Nico - I don't know what to tell you.

1) Do I believe that there were changes planned for the offense this year? Absolutely!
2) Do I think it was because Nico's Dad said change it? Absolutely NOT!
3) Do I believe Nico could have run the offense with the changes? NO, not a chance. Maybe the light bulb will go off for him at UCLA - but the truth is, he wasn't suited for Tennessee's offense at all.
4) Do I believe we ended up with a QB that has a better chance at being successful running this offense? Based on the first game, I would say yes.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Breathe, man. Slow down, breathe.

Two things can be true at the same time: Josh Heupel can have developed and implemented a new playbook back in the winter/spring, AND can adjust that playbook to the strengths and capabilities of his players, including his new quarterback. In fact, I think he does the latter as naturally as breathing. It's just part of how he coaches.

So that fella can be right, and you can be right, too. In fact, I think you both are. I think both these things have happened. This offense IS significantly different. It IS a brainchild of the off-season. It probably has a lot to do with the criticisms from the media that Tennessee's offense is not NFL-friendly, doesn't prepare the players well. That was probably one of the primary motivations for Josh to retool some things. But it is also clearly taking advantage of what Joey and the rest of the team are capable of doing. That is, after all, the primary reason our pass-to-interception ratio is so low, year after year, QB after QB.

Go Vols!

There is absolutely zero reason to douse a good flaming case of BVS and bring reason onto this board!

Great take. I love to see Coach Heupel adjusting his liturgy.