Even after a lopsided victory against an injury-plagued UTSA at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 23, the vibe around the Tennessee football program continues to feel strange in 2023.
It’s strange overall and not directly due to the gut-slashing loss in Gainesville the week prior. Things have felt weird from the beginning for a Tennessee team living in the giant footprint of the electric, vertical, 2022 version of itself. And, even against clearly inferior competition (not unlike Austin Peay) this past week, Tennessee was a team looking to establish an identity for itself and largely coming up emptyhanded. That’s nothing to take away from a 45-14 drubbing delivered to the Roadrunners, but there are bigger fish coming up the river to Knoxville.
So far in 2023, the biggest discomfort with Tennessee is the abrupt absence of a vertical passing game which last year killed everything (aside from Georgia) in its path. That Hendon Hooker-led team in ‘22 was a meme for its gluttonous approach to passing yards and explosive plays. The transition to Joe Milton (Tennessee’s second such change) on paper would suggest the pass party should continue. In reality, though, not so much. In fact, to this point, Milton has yet to find any quantifiable rhythm with any of his receivers. There have been splash plays, sure, but nothing resembling the systemic gamesmanship head coach Josh Heupel and offensive coordinator Alex Golesh (now the HC at South Florida) dealt to all-comers last season.
Tennessee has, without a doubt in my mind at least, one of the best running-back rooms in the FBS, which has certainly flashed more than the passing game, but thanks to both injury and inability to settle in on the offensive line, new OC Joey Halzle has struggled to define and execute any kind of consistent identity for them. UT has a budding star in Dylan Sampson and steady veterans in Jaylen Wright and Jabari Small, and all three have done everything asked of them at an elite level in 2023. If this is what Tennesssee is now, Halzle must embrace it and live in that world rather than continuing to watch drives die because of bad protection and touchless passing/receiving. Occasional vertical success didn’t work against Florida, and it’s sure not going to work as the wave of critical games looms, beginning this week with South Carolina.
On defense, Tennessee must get some answers for how to support its corners. Like the offense, Tennessee is living in a world where the hope is that occasional success in pressuring opposing QBs will offset well-known liabilities in pass coverage. Just like the offense, these hopes are not consistent with who this team is or what it can do.
Tennessee’s defensive line and LB Arron Beasley look like world-beaters most downs, but relying on them to do their jobs at an elite level while carrying water for the secondary is a major problem. Again, that may be easier said than done, but this team must discover and weaponize its identity. And – again, easy to say from my cozy seat – I believe the Vols’ coaches must be brave enough to experiment with personnel at cornerback.
Tennessee is 3-1 and getting healthier, so forgive the blunt negativity. The fact of the matter is that the 2023 incarnation of the Vols is nothing like the ‘22 squad, and everything feels weird currently because of the differences. Against UTSA, I believe that, on the performances of Sampson and Milton, the offense got closer to a new, true self. The defense is inching in that direction. If Tennessee is planning to secure its place at the top of the Southeastern Conference, it has to define itself.
The four games Tennessee has played thus far have offered essentially no evidence of an identity, in spite of the three wins and some good moments sprinkled throughout. The next few weeks will define the shape of Tennessee’s 2023 season – whether the Vols are ready for them or not. Letting go of the past and embracing the strengths of the present are the shortest paths to competing and rising up to the occasion in those coming matchups in a sustainable, focused way.
