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

3. Coaching was too conservative

Jeremy Pruitt went for a field goal on 4th and 2 in the first half against the Alabama Crimson Tide with his team trailing 14-0. He then played for halftime late when they were down 28-10. On the opening drive of the second half, Jim Chaney called a draw play that resulted in an Eric Gray fumble, which was returned for a touchdown to give Tennessee football a 35-10 deficit.

Chaney called a draw play to Gray or Ty Chandler on seven third downs throughout the game. Gray only converted one of them, and Chandler only converted one of them. You can’t blame either running back, as Alabama began reading this the whole time. Gray and Chandler ran hard and did what they could, even if Gray did make that mistake with the fumble.

In addition to those issues, Chaney called far too many crossing patters and out-routes with Guarantano. He didn’t call as many swing passes, but the issue is the fact that he didn’t go deep enough. That the Vols were so successful doing that is a major indictment against the coaching staff and Chaney in particular.

Simply put, at some point, Pruitt and co. are going to have to recognize that they aren’t on the level of Alabama or Georgia yet. When they face those teams, they have to get creative and aggressive. With receivers like Josh Palmer, they have the personnel to do it, so refusing to do so is inexcusable, especially in a game like this one.