Tennessee football: Vols 10 biggest concerns for 2018 season

6. Switch to a pro-style offense

This is part of why center was a concern on the previous slide. And it’s an off-shoot of the natural effects of a coaching change anyway. In fact, it may be better for Tennessee football right out of the gate given how bad they were on this side of the ball last year.

But if being better than last year is the standard, Vols fans will be very unhappy. So you have to wonder how well the transition to Tyson Helton’s pro-style offense is going to work. It’s not just tough because of the change. It’s tough because of where they came from.

Butch Jones and all of his coordinators focused their offenses on tricking opposing defenses. Helton’s is about creating mismatches but just beating them. It’s pretty much the style Jeremy Pruitt wants to play. How will it work, though?

Many of the Vols’ recruits were built specifically for the spread, especially the two returning quarterbacks in Jarrett Guarantano and Will McBride. The same holds true for skill players like Ty Chandler at running back.

A quarterback battle on its face is actually not a concern for this year. But the battle in light of this transition is, as are the battles on the rest of the offense. That’s why it’s a concern. Everything may be a positive, but for now it’s a total unknown. As a result, you have to wonder how well everybody will perform at their respective positions. And yes, that is also true at quarterback.