Tennessee Preview 2018: Will the Vols get off the mat?

2017 was an awful, awful year for the Tennessee Volunteers. Butch Jones was such an unpopular coach that signs saying “Fire Butch Jones” went viral. At games not involving Jones or Tennessee. When he was fired after the team lost to Kentucky, there was an audible sense of relief. You know, for two seconds until the Knoxville roadshow went on overdrive as they tried to find a successor (remember the Greg Schiano incident?) – with former Alabama defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt eventually coming through the mire to claim the top job.

This year, there is every possibility that the Vols will be the basement-dwellers of their division. They aren’t a whole lot better than the terrible 4-8 team that stunk up the SEC last year, and the departure of John Kelly will hurt them at running back. But there are some reasons to hope for the orange and white. There is a lot of talent at wide receiver, and the two quarterbacks battling for the job are at least serviceable in Jarrett Guarantano and Stanford transfer Keller Chryst.

Anyway, so here goes…

OFFENSE

If Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic Park had seen Tennessee’s offense in 2017, he would have repeated the famous line: “Now that’s one big pile of shit”. And he would be completely right. The Vols finished 125th out of 130 in the country’s FBS schools. It was comical.

Now, it’s not known who will win the battle out of Guarantano and Chryst, but it’s a lot better than Pruitt taking one, shaking his head and thinking: “What the hell else do I have to work with?” The chosen quarterback will have a couple of great targets in Jauan Jennings, who’s back after offseason surgery and will be a fearsome target and junior Marquez Callaway will cause defenses problems with his speed. Brandon Johnson is solid enough too. Also getting catches will be top JUCO TE Dominik Wood-Anderson, who Pruitt got in the face of fierce competition from Alabama, Florida State and USC. He’s got a huge frame and will cause Ds problems.

Wood-Anderson better be a good blocker too, because the offensive line is low on experience, too. And bearing in mind it gave up 35 sacks last season (good for 109th in the nation), this isn’t good news.

At running back, we mentioned the loss of John Kelly, but sophomore Ty Chandler should be fine. There is also a bit of a buzz around Jeremy Banks, who’s coming to Knoxville after nixing offers from Texas A&M Ole Miss, Arkansas and UCLA.

DEFENSE

If a Vols fan tells you that it was the defense that was OK last year, they are lying. It just wasn’t as bad as the offense – as the 82nd in the nation rank shows (However, they were 93rd in the nation against conference foes, and gave up over 30 points six times during the season). They sucked.

They will improve in 2017 for one simple reason: The guy who will coach them will be Pruitt, who’s one of the best defensive coaches in the nation. We expect a bunch of the failures and mistakes to be eliminated. Especially against the run…which couldn’t have got a lot worse.

Top tackler LB Daniel Butili’s back after contributing 90 tackles last year, and the star alongside him could be JUCO transfer Jordan Allen, who was ranked No.2 in the class at that position. Tennessee also like incoming freshmen JJ Peterson, who could be fun to watch too.

Secondary-wise, it’s strange to think that Tennessee had one of the best secondaries in the nation (3rd) last year, giving up just 161.7 yards per game. Of course, there’s the argument that when you’re giving up 251.5 yards per game to the rush there’s no real reason for your quarterbacks to throw, but still….it was a positive. Anyway,the amazingly-named Nigel Warrior, Todd Kelly, Micah Abernathy can cause QBs headaches, but there will be worries.

SCHEDULE

Sept. 1 vs. West Virginia (in Charlotte)
Sept. 8 East Tennessee State
Sept. 15 UTEP
Sept. 22 Florida
Sept. 29 at Georgia
Oct. 6 OPEN DATE
Oct. 13 at Auburn
Oct. 20 Alabama
Oct. 27 at South Carolina
Nov. 3 UNC-Charlotte
Nov. 10 Kentucky
Nov. 17 Missouri
Nov. 24 at Vanderbilt

The Volunteers hardly have it easy when they kick off the season with West Virginia, who’s creating a lot of waves as a possible CFB Play-Off dark horse. After two wins over ETSU and UTEP, the Vols have a beast of a five game spree in Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina. If they go 1-4 in those games they’ll be happy (if there’s any possibility it’ll be against Florida, we think). We think it’s more likely they go 0-5. Pruitt gets another win over UNC-Charlotte, scrapes by against Kentucky, before losing to Missouri and losing to Tennessee rivals Vanderbilt. 

PREDICTION: 4-8. This won’t be a fun year for Vols fans, but there will be signs of better things to come.