Tennessee football: Will Brady Hoke’s tweaks add spark to Vols gameplay?
By Colby Howell
Tennessee football’s interim head coach is Brady Hoke the Volunteers fired Butch Jones. He mentioned making some tweaks, and fans are curious.
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After mentioning that he’ll be making “tweaks” as interim head coach of Tennessee football, Brady Hoke has piqued the curiosity of Vols fans everywhere who are still paying attention to the outcome of this season. They are anxious to see an extremely necessary spark in gameplay.
A couple of weeks ago for the Southern Miss game, Tennessee football fans started the #EmptyNeyland campaign. It started to gain a lot of traction but ultimately didn’t pay off. While the student section looked vacant, there were still some 90,000 people in attendance.
Now after the firing of Butch Jones, the trend around Knoxville is #FillNeyland. Fans are ready to see what the team looks like without Jones there to call the shots. It’s something they’ve been begging for since the shutout loss to Georgia at home.
There’s no doubt that a lot of rumors were circulating around Jones, but one of them is he’s not known to take suggestions, especially when it comes to his offense. Jalen Hurd‘s father had a “Welcome to Jalen’s world” comment explaining why the running back set to break records at Tennessee Football left the program.
I myself have gone back, watched film and drawn up Butch’s offensive drives. It’s all right there for us to see. Any time the Quarterback is under center, it’s a run up the gut. It’s never a play action pass.
Any handoff from the shotgun shows the halfback running across the quarterback for either a) a draw or b) a potential zone read. It’s high school football. But here’s something interesting to consider about Brady Hoke.
Brady Hoke is more of a winner than we think.
“Pshh yea right, so Hoke should be Tennessee football’s new head coach?” I’m not saying that at all. I think Tennessee football is ready to hire a big name, a proven name. They won’t hire a 78-70 coach. However, there are worse interims to name than Hoke.
Hoke turned a 4-8 Ball State program into a 12-1 team in 6 seasons. That is a major turnaround no matter what conference you’re coaching in. He also turned a 4-8 San Diego St. team into a 9-4 team in 2 seasons.
His first year at Michigan, when he was loaded with talent from Rich Rodriguez, he went on to win the Sugar Bowl with an 11-2 record. However, Brady Hoke isn’t quite in the same situation Ed Orgeron was in at LSU.
Hoke has two games to coach, and only one of those is against a quality team. Ed Orgeron was named interim on Sept. 25, 2016, giving him the majority of the season to prove himself as a head coach. LSU was unable to land a big time hire, settling head coach duties to Coach O.
That won’t happen with Hoke. Tennessee football already has names in place. I’m sure of it. They just have to seal the deal. The point is if Hoke has the resources, he can be a pretty big influence. He has four Coach of the Year awards in three different conferences, including one in the Big Ten.
Next: 4 biggest reasons Butch Jones didn't work out with Vols
Will the “tweaks” Hoke is planning to make be enough to lead Tennessee to a bowl game? Maybe, maybe not. But hey, Tennessee football can be great with the right man calling the shots. The talent is there, but the Vols need to find the desire to win after losing the coach who recruited them all. Chances are slim, but certainly not impossible.