Tennessee football: Vols new OC should run cutting-edge pro-style system
As Jeremy Pruitt looks for Tennessee football’s new offensive coordinator to replace Tyson Helon, the Volunteers need an advanced pro-style offense.
Throughout its history, Tennessee football has been its most successful when it was ahead of the curve on trends. They’ve had to be, especially since college football integrated, given the nature of recruiting talent in their state compared to the talent in rival SEC schools.
Heck, part of being ahead of the curve was integrating under Doug Dickey during the 1960s. It also included updating facilities in the 1970s and 1980s and expanding the stadium to over 100,000 seats in the 1990s. All of this was ahead of many other SEC teams and allowed the Vols to recruit on a national level.
But one of the biggest things that consistently helped them find success was when they ran an offense that was trendy but suitable for the NFL. I call it a cutting-edge Pro-Style offense. Doug Dickey ran the T-Formation in the 1960s as it was fashionable and saw a revival in the NFL.
Johnny Majors rebuilt the program by establishing a vertical passing game, turning Tennessee football into Wide Receiver U. Under Phillip Fulmer, David Cutcliffe added to that vertical passing game by establishing balance.
Every time the Vols saw success, they ran an offense just standard enough for the NFL but just trendy enough to excite fans. It was the fundamental opposite of what teams like the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators did.
Alabama, under Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, became dominant by catching up to the trendy college offense at the time because it could so easily recruit the athletes to run it. This was the case when Bryant went to the Wishbone in the 1970s and when Saban accepted a more open offense four years ago.
Meanwhile, Florida has always used the speed of the Sunshine State to its advantage. They were at their best with a cutting-edge offense that wasn’t a pro-style but rather found ways to plug in track stars who could spread out defense. That’s what the Fun-n-Gun and Urban Meyer’s and Dan Mullen’s spread do.
However, for the Vols, that perfect combination of cutting-edge and running a pro-style is how they can attract national recruits. And as they look to replace Tyson Helton, it’s what they need to do again.
Right now, Jeremy Pruitt is at a crossroads. His instincts as a defensive guy will tell him to get another coordinator to run a basic, pro-style offense while he gets the athletes on defense to win the game. However, this isn’t Alabama, Louisiana or even Georgia. He simply can’t win doing that like the Tide, Bulldogs or LSU Tigers.
The Vols need to take the Clemson Tigers route if they want to return to glory. Dabo Swinney has an advanced offense that still can prepare players for the NFL. It’s the perfect combination for success, and one they should replicate.
Tennessee football is in a unique position to go trendy again because the NFL is changing. Pro teams are looking at Kliff Kingsbury to bring in the air raid. Experiments with Chip Kelly and now what the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans are doing with Marcus Mariota and DeShaun Watson show more teams are willing to adopt elements of the spread.
As a result, the move for the Vols is actually pretty simple. They need to find a guy who runs elements of the spread offense suitable for the NFL. This includes three and four wide receiver sets and a hurry-up offense.
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Now, Vols fans will remember what they saw under Butch Jones, who said he’d run such an offense. However, it was far too simple, and it didn’t develop guys for the NFL. Oh, and he also hardly went up-tempo.
So, in reality, Tennessee football should look at somebody who would do what Butch Jones said he was going to do back in 2013. Now, the most obvious answer for this is Kendal Briles or Hugh Freeze. However, those are hard guys to get.
Briles could become a head coach soon, and Freeze still has to be approved by the SEC. Freddie Kitchens is running a variation of this with the Browns right now, though, so he could potentially be an option.
If not, Pruitt should be able to find somebody. There are numerous coaches on some level who run such an offense, and it would thrive on Rocky Top. Helton’s offense was too much like Bobby Petrino’s and while that seemed like a great thing a year ago, it’s clear people have caught up to that style now. Only Jeff Brohm was able to adapt.
Freeze’s style of offense uses big receivers and tall quarterbacks who can stand in the pocket, so Tennessee football already has the perfect personnel for it. So if they can’t get Freeze, they should look for somebody who runs a system similar to that.
But the key is making sure that it is as cutting-edge as it can be while still being NFL friendly. That is what will allow the Vols to compete with other teams in the SEC, and it will also help them recruit on a more national level. History shows this is the formula for success on Rocky Top, and even as football in Tennessee gets better, that likely won’t change.