Tennessee football: Vols offensive scheme has not been what coaches promised

Tennessee football’s offensive game plan through the first five games has not been what Jeremy Pruitt and Tyson Helton said it would be for the Volunteers.

When Jeremy Pruitt brought in Tyson Helton to be the Tennessee football offensive coordinator, fans looked at the development of Sam Darnold with the USC Trojans and the high-powered offenses that Jeff Brohm ran with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers for reference. Given the numerous playmakers the Vols had, it looked like things would be exciting.

Dating back to February, Helton consistently hinted that his focus would be on sticking to the run to set up deep passes. Pruitt added that they want to be able to run the ball when they want to run it and dominate the line of scrimmage.

When you break down their plan, they have halfway lived up to what they promised about half the time this season. Tennessee football has not gone for too many deep balls in any of its games. In fact, it’s done the opposite.

Despite Jarrett Guarantano’s big arm, the Vols are going to the well far too often on horizontal passing plays instead of deep balls. This is the case despite the fact that Marquez Callaway, Jauan Jennings, Josh Palmer and Brandon Johnson are all established deep threats, and Dominick Wood-Anderson was a junior college tight end touted specifically for his receiving ability.

This was evident against the Georgia Bulldogs. Guarantano’s first five passes were all attempts of less than five yards through the air, and only one was taken for more yards. But it’s not the first time that happened. Against the West Virginia Mountaineers, seven of Guarantano’s first 14 passes only went traveled yards or fewer through the air.

Sorry, but that’s not exactly the game plan Helton promised when the season started. Now, to be fair, we can’t really judge what happened against the Florida Gators due to all the turnovers, and the Vols took a lot of chances in those games. They also did stick to the run game that day, as they did against WVU.

They tried a lot of experimental things against ETSU and UTEP, helped by a series of mistakes that the Bucs made. So it was hard to judge the schemes in those games. But against Georgia, they even abandoned sticking to the run game.

Ty Chandler gained them a first down on their first offensive play. Their next three plays were short passing attempts by Helton, which resulted in a punt. It set the tone for the whole game, and that was a recurring theme throughout the day.

We’ve said this before, but we have to repeat this. Tennessee football doesn’t have the horses this year to beat teams by methodically moving the ball down the field and outmuscling opponents while their quarterback makes efficient plays. They need to make big plays on the outside with their playmakers at receiver.

Helton said he wants to do that throughout the offseason. He hasn’t. And on Saturday, he didn’t even stick to the run game. So he’s completely abandoned what he promised so far, and doing that is costing the Vols’ offense. They didn’t cross midfield until the second half against the Georgia Bulldogs, and that’s a huge issue.

It’s one thing if the Vols struggled to move the ball on the ground. But at times, they have found their running game. And they have not really given their playmakers at receiver a chance to be explosive. That’s a problem that they need to correct.

With a lack of depth on defense, it’s understandable that Helton wants to stick to the run and control the clock. But it can’t just be about efficient passing to complement that. Tennessee football needs more deep passes, as Helton promised in the offseason.

It’s gotten better recently, as Guarantano is now averaging over eight yards an attempt. But given the personnel of the Vols, that number even needs to be higher. Tennessee’s passing game needs to have a heavy focus on the deep ball. It worked with a touchdown pass to Josh Palmer in the second half. The Vols need to start doing more of that.