What can everyone expect for the Tennessee football offense season moving forward? There are a lot of moving pieces, of course including the uncertainty at the quarterback position. Will Joey Aguilar, Jake Merklinger or George MacIntyre win the starting job?
We'll find out in the next few weeks. While that's up in the air, it looks like some changes with the game plan and schemes are on the way from offensive coordinator Joey Halzle. The days of draw plays on 3rd-and-long? It appears those are over. Via reporter Ben McKee, Halzle made it clear he's going to open up the playbook and look to make Tennessee more explosive this fall:
Vols OC Joey Halzle: That's been the entire focus of the offseason. When teams are playing really soft coverage, dropping eight, how do we still generate explosive plays? We've made some changes.
— Ben McKee (@benmckee14) July 29, 2025
Important changes are on the way for the Tennessee offense in 2025
This is what we're talking about. If teams are in fact going to leave acres of space open on the field, then it's going to be time for Halzle to make sure he draws up the kind of plays that are going to make opposing defenses pay for that decision.
Thankfully, it looks like he and Josh Heupel have gone back to the drawing board and they're preparing for those sequences for game days. While Nico Iamaleava, Dylan Sampson, Squirrel White and others are gone from the 2024 CFP squad, that doesn't mean the cupboard is bare.
There's a ton of buzz surrounding Aguilar after he tossed for 3,000 yards in back-to-back seasons at App State. At receiver, Boo Carter is going to be an option, while 5-star wideout Mike Matthews is hoping to have a breakout sophomore season. The potential is there for Chris Brazzell II, Braylon Staley and others to deliver for Heupel too.
It's easy to feel a bit deflated with so much talent not returning to Knoxville in 2025, but Heupel and Halzle are going to put their guys in the best position to succeed. Plenty of people are sleeping on the Vols ahead of Week 1, which could prove to be a mistake. When it comes to facing soft coverages too, only time will tell if Halzle's plans end up being gold or not, but let's hope they are.