Tennessee football: Coaches prove genius by addressing most baffling issue of 2021

Given Josh Heupel’s focus on tempo, you could explain why Tennessee football was so potent offensively and struggled so much on defense. A much more pressing question at the time, though, was how the Vols could be so dominant in the first quarter and so awful in the second and third quarters.

UT was No. 1 in the nation in first-quarter points per game but fell to No. 59 in second-quarter points per game. Their defense went from top 30 in fewest first-quarter points allowed per game to No. 119 in fewest second-quarter points allowed per game.

What drove the dramatic change? Well, it seems like Tennessee football’s coaches have the answer. Alex Golesh noted in his Tuesday press conference that since they were in a new system and facing new opponents, they often caught defensive coordinators off-guard early. Here’s a bit of what he said on that front.

"I think a lot of times, the first time you play a team, if you’re referring to specifically the tempo, just like you saw a year ago—teams settle in, players settle in. I think it’s really hard to replicate in practice, so people tend to settle in, you get to the second and third quarter, people are used to it. Play-callers on the other side of the ball figure out what they can and can’t get in at the tempo, so you have to have answers."

You could imply what happened from there. The Vols got a few quick strikes in the first to take control of the game, the other team’s coaches adjusted, and then their lack of depth kicked in, resulting in a second-quarter collapse.

If they’re going to take a step forward this year, though, they have to address that for a couple of reasons. Sure, they’ll be a lot deeper and more able to handle teams adjusting. However, coaches will be a lot more familiar with them, so they won’t have the advantage of the first quarter.

This year, the Vols face seven of the same head coaches they faced in 2021. Five of them were defensive coordinators before they became head coaches, so that’s where their focus is going to be. You can bet they’ll be more prepared for UT’s quick-striking offense.

Taking that into account, Tennessee football’s most baffling issue in 2021 is no longer baffling when broken down. However, the explanation for it creates a major concern as to what could happen with them this year since it’s all about how well coaches figure out their offense.

For his part, Golesh seems to be aware of that. Based on what he said, he’s been working on trying to get out ahead of that since the spring, and it’s likely Heupel has doing the same thing. This doesn’t just include expanding formations and disguising things better either, but that’s a part of it. Here’s some of what else he said.

"“We’ve had to grow and evolve, too, and like I said, you spend a lot of the offseason looking for answers—where we got hurt, and where we hurt people—knowing that there’s going to be answers to that. I think you’ve got to continue to evolve offensively.”"

To be fair, it’s not like this is new to Heupel. When he was offensive coordinator for the Missouri Tigers, he faced six of the same head coaches in 2017 as he did in 2016 and seven of the same coaching staffs (the Florida Gators fired Jim McElwain mid-season that year). Still, his offense got even better.

That year earned Heupel a head coaching job with the UCF Knights, and while they got worse results each year he was there, the offense didn’t suffer. Golesh was there by that time as well, so he’s already experienced dealing with something like this.

The big deal for Tennessee football is that Golesh is clearly aware of this. Many coaches would rest on their laurels and not understand why things changed. This just shows the genius of Tennessee football’s offensive staff, and it should help them in a big way to continue at this elite level.