dduncan4163
Have at it Hoss
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How much can Jim Chaney improve the Tennessee offense in year one? Here’s what the numbers tell us
While the Tennessee Volunteers showed plenty of promise on defense in 2018, the offense was a different story. There were plenty of reasons why the Vols finished the 2018 season as one of the nation’s worst offenses. Injuries, inefficiency, lack of talent, mistakes, miscommunications - you name it - this team faced all factors and could not overcome most of them.
Head coach Jeremy Pruitt and offensive coordinator Tyson Helton did not have much chemistry, either. Helton’s offense routinely clashed with Pruitt’s ideologies and the end result was Helton leaving for the head coaching job at Western Kentucky.
Now, I’m not sayin Pruitt drove Helton away, but one would have to think that if there was room for growth at Tennessee, Helton would have stayed. Regardless, what Helton left behind was an offense that finished as the 84th overall team in the nation in terms of OFEI, according to Football Outsiders.
The Vols finished 2018 as one of the least valued offenses, evidenced by their rank of 107 out of 130 teams in the country, according to FO. Their Offensive Efficiency (OE) grade was a measly 1.81, which basically means that the offense didn’t have many drives that scored points, flipped field position, or helped Tennessee gain any significant momentum (or value) from the drive.
Tennessee also didn’t finish better than 101st in any of the other categories outside of the Turnover Rate (OTO), where a 77th finish was the best the team could do. Such categories include first down rate, touchdown rate, ball control rate, and others.
Georgia, on the other hand, finished 2018 as the nation’s third-best overall team in terms of OFEI, fourth-best in terms of OE, and were inside the top-10 of every category except turnover rate, where the Bulldogs finished 11th. Now, this was Chaney’s third year as Georgia’s OC, so he has had to time to implement his system and his players have had time to grow in said system, which is obviously not the case with UT. So, in order to get a more realistic idea of how Chaney could impact this offense, I took a look at his first year as OC at every stop (Tennessee, Arkansas, Pittsburgh, Georgia) and compared it to the program’s previous year of offensive output before Chaney’s arrival. We’ll go in chronological order to keep it simple, starting with Chaney’s first go in Knoxville. Chaney became OC in 2009 when Lane Kiffin was hired to replace Phillip Fulmer. The Vols were abysmal on offense in 2008 despite having a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate in Arian Foster and all five starters returning on an offensive line that only allowed four sacks in 2007.
Really good read. If the O-Line can be at least servicable. Chaney could have the offense humming by November.
GBO
While the Tennessee Volunteers showed plenty of promise on defense in 2018, the offense was a different story. There were plenty of reasons why the Vols finished the 2018 season as one of the nation’s worst offenses. Injuries, inefficiency, lack of talent, mistakes, miscommunications - you name it - this team faced all factors and could not overcome most of them.
Head coach Jeremy Pruitt and offensive coordinator Tyson Helton did not have much chemistry, either. Helton’s offense routinely clashed with Pruitt’s ideologies and the end result was Helton leaving for the head coaching job at Western Kentucky.
Now, I’m not sayin Pruitt drove Helton away, but one would have to think that if there was room for growth at Tennessee, Helton would have stayed. Regardless, what Helton left behind was an offense that finished as the 84th overall team in the nation in terms of OFEI, according to Football Outsiders.
The Vols finished 2018 as one of the least valued offenses, evidenced by their rank of 107 out of 130 teams in the country, according to FO. Their Offensive Efficiency (OE) grade was a measly 1.81, which basically means that the offense didn’t have many drives that scored points, flipped field position, or helped Tennessee gain any significant momentum (or value) from the drive.
Tennessee also didn’t finish better than 101st in any of the other categories outside of the Turnover Rate (OTO), where a 77th finish was the best the team could do. Such categories include first down rate, touchdown rate, ball control rate, and others.
Georgia, on the other hand, finished 2018 as the nation’s third-best overall team in terms of OFEI, fourth-best in terms of OE, and were inside the top-10 of every category except turnover rate, where the Bulldogs finished 11th. Now, this was Chaney’s third year as Georgia’s OC, so he has had to time to implement his system and his players have had time to grow in said system, which is obviously not the case with UT. So, in order to get a more realistic idea of how Chaney could impact this offense, I took a look at his first year as OC at every stop (Tennessee, Arkansas, Pittsburgh, Georgia) and compared it to the program’s previous year of offensive output before Chaney’s arrival. We’ll go in chronological order to keep it simple, starting with Chaney’s first go in Knoxville. Chaney became OC in 2009 when Lane Kiffin was hired to replace Phillip Fulmer. The Vols were abysmal on offense in 2008 despite having a dark horse Heisman Trophy candidate in Arian Foster and all five starters returning on an offensive line that only allowed four sacks in 2007.
Really good read. If the O-Line can be at least servicable. Chaney could have the offense humming by November.
GBO
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