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Date: Saturday, October 3rd
Game Time: 12:00 pm ET
Venue: Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN
Network: SEC
The Vols have their home opener against Missouri this week, a game typically relegated to the final weeks of the season. Last year, the wheels fell off for Missouri and cost former coach and alumni Barry Odom his job. Tennessee had their way with Missouri as well, beating the Tigers and avenging back-to-back 50-17 losses. Vol fans have had immense frustration over this series since Missouri came to the SEC, feeling that they had no part in ever having a victory over Tennessee. The general thought is that Missouri should be fighting for scraps among Kentucky and South Carolina while Tennessee is in the top tier with Georgia and Florida. However, this expectation has not yet materialized and the top tier of the East remains Georgia and Florida's battle to fight while the Vols are stuck in tier two fighting various Cats and a Chicken. The next step forward for Tennessee is to assert annual dominance over Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri. The Tigers are the only team we don't currently have a streak (2+ wins) over, so let's get that settled now so we can set our sights on Florida and Georgia.
Keys to Victory:
1. Draw the Line: There is seldom a football game that is won without winning the line of scrimmage. For Tennessee to beat Mizzou, they will need to be winners on the OL and DL. Fortunately, Mizzou is weak on both lines. Granted, they just played Alabama, who makes everyone look bad, but they were badly exposed by the Crimson Tide. The Alabama defense was all over QB Shawn Robinson and the running game never got on track, with only 69 yards and a meager 2.0 yards per carry. Going into the 4th quarter, when Alabama decided to take a nap, Mizzou only had 190 yards of offense. On the flipside, the Missouri defensive line, which always has seemed to have an all-conference caliber type of player, has finally run dry and there isn't much they feature. Look for JG to have plenty of time and for the Vols defense to keep pressure on Missouri all night long.
2. Do what you do best: For the Tennessee offense right now, that means running the ball. The Vols averaged a solid 4.0 YPC against USC with Ty Chandler looking like the player we expected 4 years ago. Eric Gray had a rougher night running, but had the huge flea flicker pick-up and he looks poised to have a big game vs. Missouri. Somehow, Bama only averaged 3.1 yards per carry vs. Mizzou, so that is worth noting. They may be able to generate some resistance against the Vols offense.
3. Settle Down: JG remains a polarizing figure on Volnation, with many praising his game vs South Carolina while others are ready to put Shrout in and not look back. The truth lies in the middle. The fact is, he did do some things well that he has done in the past. He made good decisions with the ball. There were some miscommunications on a few routes that we will not know whose fault it was, he did not hold onto the ball too long (usually), and he picked up some yardage with his legs. However, he overshot a ton of passes, killing drives on key 3rd downs when receivers were open. This cannot continue. He doesn't have to be perfect, but he has to be better. If he connects on half of his overthrown balls last night, Tennessee probably scores a minimum of 14 more points. The remedy is the Missouri secondary, whom he torched for a comical 415 yards after Volnation had left him for dead. This may be just what the doctor ordered.
4. Week 2 Boost: It's often said the biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2. This will go both ways. First of all Eli Drinkwitz has a complicated offense which features a lot of misdirection and short passing game. As we saw yesterday with Shi Smith taking every short pass for a 1st down, the short game may be a nightmare waiting to happen. Yesterday was the first attempt of the Tigers to run it against an opponent. Having lost spring practice, there was understandably a lot of improvement to be made. How much of a leap they make from last week to this one will be interesting to see. At least the Vols have some film to see and dissect.
5. Third Down for Naught: Tennessee was an abysmal 1 for 12 on 3rd down conversions last night. They got lucky. You don't win many of those games. Mizzou on the other hand was oddly efficient vs. Bama, going 8 for 16 and 2 for 3 on 4th. That's some good play calling and execution. If Tennessee cannot get on the right side of this statistic, they will not win the game. Often, they were in position to convert, but the ball too often sailed high and were forced to punt.
Prediction:
I think this game sees some points. I am not confident in either defense to do a whole lot after their showings in the first week. I think the strength of each offense matches up well against the other. Missouri drives Tennessee crazy with a unique offense that generates a lot of yards after catch. Tennessee struggles to find consistency but hits on enough chunk plays to keep lighting up the scoreboard as well.
TN 38
Mizzou 34
Game Time: 12:00 pm ET
Venue: Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN
Network: SEC
The Vols have their home opener against Missouri this week, a game typically relegated to the final weeks of the season. Last year, the wheels fell off for Missouri and cost former coach and alumni Barry Odom his job. Tennessee had their way with Missouri as well, beating the Tigers and avenging back-to-back 50-17 losses. Vol fans have had immense frustration over this series since Missouri came to the SEC, feeling that they had no part in ever having a victory over Tennessee. The general thought is that Missouri should be fighting for scraps among Kentucky and South Carolina while Tennessee is in the top tier with Georgia and Florida. However, this expectation has not yet materialized and the top tier of the East remains Georgia and Florida's battle to fight while the Vols are stuck in tier two fighting various Cats and a Chicken. The next step forward for Tennessee is to assert annual dominance over Vanderbilt, Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri. The Tigers are the only team we don't currently have a streak (2+ wins) over, so let's get that settled now so we can set our sights on Florida and Georgia.
Keys to Victory:
1. Draw the Line: There is seldom a football game that is won without winning the line of scrimmage. For Tennessee to beat Mizzou, they will need to be winners on the OL and DL. Fortunately, Mizzou is weak on both lines. Granted, they just played Alabama, who makes everyone look bad, but they were badly exposed by the Crimson Tide. The Alabama defense was all over QB Shawn Robinson and the running game never got on track, with only 69 yards and a meager 2.0 yards per carry. Going into the 4th quarter, when Alabama decided to take a nap, Mizzou only had 190 yards of offense. On the flipside, the Missouri defensive line, which always has seemed to have an all-conference caliber type of player, has finally run dry and there isn't much they feature. Look for JG to have plenty of time and for the Vols defense to keep pressure on Missouri all night long.
2. Do what you do best: For the Tennessee offense right now, that means running the ball. The Vols averaged a solid 4.0 YPC against USC with Ty Chandler looking like the player we expected 4 years ago. Eric Gray had a rougher night running, but had the huge flea flicker pick-up and he looks poised to have a big game vs. Missouri. Somehow, Bama only averaged 3.1 yards per carry vs. Mizzou, so that is worth noting. They may be able to generate some resistance against the Vols offense.
3. Settle Down: JG remains a polarizing figure on Volnation, with many praising his game vs South Carolina while others are ready to put Shrout in and not look back. The truth lies in the middle. The fact is, he did do some things well that he has done in the past. He made good decisions with the ball. There were some miscommunications on a few routes that we will not know whose fault it was, he did not hold onto the ball too long (usually), and he picked up some yardage with his legs. However, he overshot a ton of passes, killing drives on key 3rd downs when receivers were open. This cannot continue. He doesn't have to be perfect, but he has to be better. If he connects on half of his overthrown balls last night, Tennessee probably scores a minimum of 14 more points. The remedy is the Missouri secondary, whom he torched for a comical 415 yards after Volnation had left him for dead. This may be just what the doctor ordered.
4. Week 2 Boost: It's often said the biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2. This will go both ways. First of all Eli Drinkwitz has a complicated offense which features a lot of misdirection and short passing game. As we saw yesterday with Shi Smith taking every short pass for a 1st down, the short game may be a nightmare waiting to happen. Yesterday was the first attempt of the Tigers to run it against an opponent. Having lost spring practice, there was understandably a lot of improvement to be made. How much of a leap they make from last week to this one will be interesting to see. At least the Vols have some film to see and dissect.
5. Third Down for Naught: Tennessee was an abysmal 1 for 12 on 3rd down conversions last night. They got lucky. You don't win many of those games. Mizzou on the other hand was oddly efficient vs. Bama, going 8 for 16 and 2 for 3 on 4th. That's some good play calling and execution. If Tennessee cannot get on the right side of this statistic, they will not win the game. Often, they were in position to convert, but the ball too often sailed high and were forced to punt.
Prediction:
I think this game sees some points. I am not confident in either defense to do a whole lot after their showings in the first week. I think the strength of each offense matches up well against the other. Missouri drives Tennessee crazy with a unique offense that generates a lot of yards after catch. Tennessee struggles to find consistency but hits on enough chunk plays to keep lighting up the scoreboard as well.
TN 38
Mizzou 34
Also 35-20 Vols win. Streak continues