Volosaurus rex
Doctorate in Volology
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As anyone who has contributed to this forum for any length of time can attest, Vol Nation has a stable full of Hall of Fame-caliber armchair coaches. Now is your opportunity to prove your worth and render service to Tennessees football program. You have been promoted to the position of offensive coordinator on Butch Jones coaching staff: What is your game plan vs. Alabama? If you are truly ambitious, you can produce game plans for the defense and special teams as well. Please remember that our collective goal is to craft a game plan that gives us the best possible chance of victory over Alabama, so defeatist rhetoric has no place whatsoever in this thread. I offer the following thoughts as a point of departure for further discussion:
Run/pass ratio:
In the post-Arkansas game edition of Big Orange Sunday, former Coach Doug Mathews offered what he considered to be the best overall offensive recipe for this teams success, given our deficiencies in the offensive line and difficulty in establishing any kind of downfield passing threat. He stated that [Our] running backs need to run the ball [a minimum of] 35 times a game between [Hurd and Kamara], I think our quarterback needs to run it 12-15 times. That puts us somewhere around 45-50 rushes a game. For this particular team, I think thats what were going to have to get to. In short, an overall game plan similar to what we employed against Bowling Green (64-399 yards), Florida (51-254 yards), Georgia (48-207 yards) and, for that matter, Alabama last year (43-181 yards).
Given the fact that Nick Saban and his staff have a significant body of video data on Josh Dobbs which they did not possess last year, we may well need to exercise both the aggressiveness that we displayed vs. Georgia and the creativity that we exercised in the pre-fourth quarter Florida game in order to generate comparable results vs. Alabama Saturday. Keep in mind, however, the following facts: (1) Dual-threat quarterbacks have proven time and time again to be Kryptonite against Saban-coached defenses; Dobbs is the first mobile quarterback faced by this years Alabama team. (2) Dobbs accounted for 75 yards rushing and 267 yards total offense in 52:05 of action last year vs. an Alabama defense which, going into that game, was ranked 3rd nationally in scoring defense (13.1 ppg), 2nd in rush defense (63.4 ypg) and 3rd in total defense (262.1 ypg). Alabama is comparably ranked in all defensive categories this year. We arent going to defeat Alabamas defensive line with smash-mouth football, but Dobbs performance last year, in conjunction with the tandem of Hurd and Kamara at tailback, should inspire confidence among both the coaching staff and players that we can move the ball on the ground vs. the Crimson Tide.
Tempo:
We are closing the gap in talent vs. Alabama, but they still possess a decisive advantage in depth. This is the one game in which a consistently uptempo offense simply is not beneficial to our cause. Too many offensive three-and-outs most definitely would put us in a position where our already thin defense is gassed by the onset of the fourth quarter. I would favor a variable tempo, one in which we ratchet up the tempo only when we are clearly in rhythm. Dobbs orchestrated two touchdown drives against bama last year, both of which were 84 yards in length and culminated 10- and 15-play drives, which consumed 5:00 and 6:46, respectively (Alabama vs. Tennessee - Play-By-Play - October 25, 2014 - ESPN). Those were the two longest scoring drives that Alabama surrendered to that point in the season. Similar productivity Saturday would be our defenses best friend.
Short-yardage package:
As stout as Alabama is in the interior of their line, bring Dobbs under center and employ two-back sets with Hurd and Kamara, both for the purposes of putting our two most dynamic playmakers on the field at the same time and providing some additional muscle with Hurd in pass protection or as lead blocker for Kamara.
Bring out of mothballs the triple-option package we used during the second half of last year:
Giving the ball periodically to Jennings (or faking it to him) on the jet sweep and wide receiver screens can set up Alabama later for the option pass.
Passing game:
We are all in a well-believe-it-when-we-see-it frame of mind when it comes to generating any kind of downfield passing attack. However, we need to build on the progress that we showed in the intermediate passing game against Georgia. Josh seems to be most comfortable throwing down the hash marks and did so effectively with our tight ends, who amassed 5 receptions for 87 yards. The Georgia game also signaled clear progress for our wide receiver corps, who combined for 12 receptions, 180 yards and one touchdown. Continued improvement on this front is utterly essential to keep Alabamas defense from simply stacking the box and sitting on our short passing game.
Conservative play calling has been one of the most common criticisms of this coaching staff and understandably so. There is, however, a silver lining to that approach. Josh Dobbs has only 2 interceptions in 169 pass attempts thus far (Joshua Dobbs Stats, News, Videos, Pictures, Bio - Tennessee Volunteers - ESPN). He must continue to play error-free ball to give us our best chance against Alabama. Conversely, I imagine that the likelihood of Alabama's defense coming up with three interception returns for touchdowns in back-to-back games is infinitesimal.
Pass Defense:
Lane Kiffin has one clear tendency, which goes all the way back to his USC days, that we need to respond to more favorably this year. He is not a "spread-the-wealth-around" guy in the passing game. He clearly prefers one feature receiver that he goes to over and over. Ridley is no Amari Cooper . . . yet, but he is beginning to assume that role. I would love to see Cam Sutton match up against him no matter where Ridley is on the field, engage him in hand-to-hand combat from the outset of the play, and employ some double coverage from the safety if needed. Make the rest of the receiving corps beat us. This Alabama passing game is not as good as last year's and neutralizing Ridley as their deep threat should be our first priority in pass defense.
Punt and Kickoff Return Game:
Making such a change at this point in the season would clearly signal that something is in the works, but, for the first time in I dont know how many years, we have the luxury of fielding multiple threats (Berry, Kamara and Sutton) in the return game. Although the practice has long since fallen out of vogue, I would love to see an old-school, double-safety return formation; they could run reverses and/or fake reverses off of it and provide a lead blocker for the actual returner. This approach would also minimize Alabama's ability to simply punt the ball out of bounds.
Leverage the kicking game to the hilt:
We are fully capable of making the General proud of our kicking game, which is one of the few clear-cut advantages we possess over Alabama. Coach Mathews made the following observations with respect to our special teams in his post-Arkansas game critique:
First off, were about as good a field position team as there is in the conference.
We dont give the ball up on our end of the field, we dont make turnovers, we dont make stupid penalties.
Arkansas had eleven drives, eight of them started 70 yards away; youre going to win a lot of games [that way].
Our punt and kickoff coverage, including the kickers, I think, are as good as anybody in America.
Our return game is becoming excellent now.
If you look last night in the kicking game, we scored a touchdown on a kickoff, we set up a touchdown on a punt, had another one returned for a touchdown that was called back, we blocked a field goal, and we stopped a fake field goal.
On the other hand, there are legitimate chinks in 'bama's special teams armor. They surrendered a punt return touchdown, lost a fumble on a punt return and had a field goal blocked by A&M. Hopefully, Berry and Kamara can positively impact the scoreboard for us, and Trevor Daniel must continue to give us the best field position possible. Ultimately, we must employ whatever means necessary to stay within striking distance going into the fourth quarter. From there, anything can happen.
Run/pass ratio:
In the post-Arkansas game edition of Big Orange Sunday, former Coach Doug Mathews offered what he considered to be the best overall offensive recipe for this teams success, given our deficiencies in the offensive line and difficulty in establishing any kind of downfield passing threat. He stated that [Our] running backs need to run the ball [a minimum of] 35 times a game between [Hurd and Kamara], I think our quarterback needs to run it 12-15 times. That puts us somewhere around 45-50 rushes a game. For this particular team, I think thats what were going to have to get to. In short, an overall game plan similar to what we employed against Bowling Green (64-399 yards), Florida (51-254 yards), Georgia (48-207 yards) and, for that matter, Alabama last year (43-181 yards).
Given the fact that Nick Saban and his staff have a significant body of video data on Josh Dobbs which they did not possess last year, we may well need to exercise both the aggressiveness that we displayed vs. Georgia and the creativity that we exercised in the pre-fourth quarter Florida game in order to generate comparable results vs. Alabama Saturday. Keep in mind, however, the following facts: (1) Dual-threat quarterbacks have proven time and time again to be Kryptonite against Saban-coached defenses; Dobbs is the first mobile quarterback faced by this years Alabama team. (2) Dobbs accounted for 75 yards rushing and 267 yards total offense in 52:05 of action last year vs. an Alabama defense which, going into that game, was ranked 3rd nationally in scoring defense (13.1 ppg), 2nd in rush defense (63.4 ypg) and 3rd in total defense (262.1 ypg). Alabama is comparably ranked in all defensive categories this year. We arent going to defeat Alabamas defensive line with smash-mouth football, but Dobbs performance last year, in conjunction with the tandem of Hurd and Kamara at tailback, should inspire confidence among both the coaching staff and players that we can move the ball on the ground vs. the Crimson Tide.
Tempo:
We are closing the gap in talent vs. Alabama, but they still possess a decisive advantage in depth. This is the one game in which a consistently uptempo offense simply is not beneficial to our cause. Too many offensive three-and-outs most definitely would put us in a position where our already thin defense is gassed by the onset of the fourth quarter. I would favor a variable tempo, one in which we ratchet up the tempo only when we are clearly in rhythm. Dobbs orchestrated two touchdown drives against bama last year, both of which were 84 yards in length and culminated 10- and 15-play drives, which consumed 5:00 and 6:46, respectively (Alabama vs. Tennessee - Play-By-Play - October 25, 2014 - ESPN). Those were the two longest scoring drives that Alabama surrendered to that point in the season. Similar productivity Saturday would be our defenses best friend.
Short-yardage package:
As stout as Alabama is in the interior of their line, bring Dobbs under center and employ two-back sets with Hurd and Kamara, both for the purposes of putting our two most dynamic playmakers on the field at the same time and providing some additional muscle with Hurd in pass protection or as lead blocker for Kamara.
Bring out of mothballs the triple-option package we used during the second half of last year:
Giving the ball periodically to Jennings (or faking it to him) on the jet sweep and wide receiver screens can set up Alabama later for the option pass.
Passing game:
We are all in a well-believe-it-when-we-see-it frame of mind when it comes to generating any kind of downfield passing attack. However, we need to build on the progress that we showed in the intermediate passing game against Georgia. Josh seems to be most comfortable throwing down the hash marks and did so effectively with our tight ends, who amassed 5 receptions for 87 yards. The Georgia game also signaled clear progress for our wide receiver corps, who combined for 12 receptions, 180 yards and one touchdown. Continued improvement on this front is utterly essential to keep Alabamas defense from simply stacking the box and sitting on our short passing game.
Conservative play calling has been one of the most common criticisms of this coaching staff and understandably so. There is, however, a silver lining to that approach. Josh Dobbs has only 2 interceptions in 169 pass attempts thus far (Joshua Dobbs Stats, News, Videos, Pictures, Bio - Tennessee Volunteers - ESPN). He must continue to play error-free ball to give us our best chance against Alabama. Conversely, I imagine that the likelihood of Alabama's defense coming up with three interception returns for touchdowns in back-to-back games is infinitesimal.
Pass Defense:
Lane Kiffin has one clear tendency, which goes all the way back to his USC days, that we need to respond to more favorably this year. He is not a "spread-the-wealth-around" guy in the passing game. He clearly prefers one feature receiver that he goes to over and over. Ridley is no Amari Cooper . . . yet, but he is beginning to assume that role. I would love to see Cam Sutton match up against him no matter where Ridley is on the field, engage him in hand-to-hand combat from the outset of the play, and employ some double coverage from the safety if needed. Make the rest of the receiving corps beat us. This Alabama passing game is not as good as last year's and neutralizing Ridley as their deep threat should be our first priority in pass defense.
Punt and Kickoff Return Game:
Making such a change at this point in the season would clearly signal that something is in the works, but, for the first time in I dont know how many years, we have the luxury of fielding multiple threats (Berry, Kamara and Sutton) in the return game. Although the practice has long since fallen out of vogue, I would love to see an old-school, double-safety return formation; they could run reverses and/or fake reverses off of it and provide a lead blocker for the actual returner. This approach would also minimize Alabama's ability to simply punt the ball out of bounds.
Leverage the kicking game to the hilt:
We are fully capable of making the General proud of our kicking game, which is one of the few clear-cut advantages we possess over Alabama. Coach Mathews made the following observations with respect to our special teams in his post-Arkansas game critique:
First off, were about as good a field position team as there is in the conference.
We dont give the ball up on our end of the field, we dont make turnovers, we dont make stupid penalties.
Arkansas had eleven drives, eight of them started 70 yards away; youre going to win a lot of games [that way].
Our punt and kickoff coverage, including the kickers, I think, are as good as anybody in America.
Our return game is becoming excellent now.
If you look last night in the kicking game, we scored a touchdown on a kickoff, we set up a touchdown on a punt, had another one returned for a touchdown that was called back, we blocked a field goal, and we stopped a fake field goal.
On the other hand, there are legitimate chinks in 'bama's special teams armor. They surrendered a punt return touchdown, lost a fumble on a punt return and had a field goal blocked by A&M. Hopefully, Berry and Kamara can positively impact the scoreboard for us, and Trevor Daniel must continue to give us the best field position possible. Ultimately, we must employ whatever means necessary to stay within striking distance going into the fourth quarter. From there, anything can happen.
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