Tennessee football: Five takeaways from Vols’ 48-17 loss to Alabama

2. Deep ball is the best part of Vols’ offense

Eric Gray and Ty Chandler are great weapons, but Tennessee football is at its best when it takes shots down the sideline. We saw this with Josh Palmer’s touchdown reception against the South Carolina Gamecocks and his two touchdown receptions against the Georgia Bulldogs. It was the only bit of positivity for Rocky Top in this game against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

For all of Jarrett Guarantano’s faults, he played very well when throwing the deep ball. Guarantano had 38-yard touchdown pass to Jalin Hyatt in the first half. In the second half, he had a 48-yard pass to Jalin Hyatt that should have been ruled a touchdown, but on the very next play, he did have a 27-yard touchdown pass to Palmer.

Although he’s not the most accurate when throwing over the middle on crossing routes, Guarantano has a beautiful deep ball. Also, when the defense spreads out, he knows when to run. He had two runs for first down on 3rd and long in the first half and 4th and long in the second half.

Simply put, this is when he’s at his best. We saw this last year down the stretch of the season with Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings. It’s why he finished the game 13-of-24 for 162 yards and two touchdowns, and he also had no interceptions.

As the Vols began taking shots downfield, they started to open up their offense. It’s been clear since then that this is the way to win with Guarantano at quarterback, and UT hasn’t done that enough. It leads to our next point.