Tennessee football: 5 concerning signs from Vols 2019 spring practice

4. Offense remained ahead of the defense.

This would have been No. 1 on the list if it wasn’t for the spring game. In front of the lights, the defense was significantly ahead of the offense on both sides of the ball, which is why we were able to drop this to No. 4.

However, if you listened to the coaches speak throughout spring practice, most notably Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee football was far ahead of the curve on offense. And if you know anything about conventional wisdom, that’s bad news.

Early on, it’s always ideal for the defense to be ahead of the offense. That’s because football is a sport in which if everybody does everything perfect on a play, defense wins. It’s the opposite of basketball, in which great offense always beats great defense.

Now, the defense had to replace its entire defensive line, the one true strength of the Vols last year. And that was a big reason this happened. But it shouldn’t have been an excuse because it’s not like the offensive line was a unit to celebrate last year anyway.

We’ll get to both of those units in this post. All you need to know for now is the fact that it’s concerning for the defense to have been ahead of the offense like that early on, and the Vols will need to correct that before the season begins. Offense was ahead of the defense early on last year as well, and we saw how things turned out.