Their strategy seems to be on offense: overwhelm early with tempo/long passes and try to build a quick lead of 17-21 in Q1, then settle into a more balanced attack with intermittent tempo. On defense: they bring pressure with run gap blitzes, simulated blitzes and occasional blitzes with the intent of creating havoc, negative plays and interceptions due to QB pressure. Pitt, UF and Bama all had decent rushing yds, but all averaged less than 4 yds a carry. The teams that gave up on the run game got blown out. Pitt was the only defense that was able to hold UT's run game in check. If we can hold them to 10 pts in Q1 and we work our grind it out ball control offense, at first, then they will be forced to creep up even further and we have the speed to take the top off. Their secondary is their weakness. UF/Bama averaged 9/10 yds a pass and over 6 yds a play. The key is avoid TOs and negative plays, particularly sacks, so I would expect a run heavy, stay ahead of the chains offense and if we can survive the Q1 onslaught, we'll have a great shot to win in Q4.
Best analysis I have seen yet. Logical, with out all all the trash talk .
Tennessee for all the talk about their passing game is very balanced.
Food for thought :
1. A total of three punts against Florida, LSU, and Alabama.
2. Hooker has thrown four interceptions in two years….only one this year
3. UT is getting better not weaker.
4. They return Cedric Tillman for this game, the best wide receiver in college fb.. to an incredibly talented receiver corps
5. I saw in another thread, that many of our fans think the Vols are looking past us to Georgia. That is not true...they not only hate us, they expect to win against us no matter what, talented, or not talented. This year, they are extremely talented and even worse, coached( I learn all this crap from my brother-in-law, who lives in Knoxville and went to UT)… he said Heupel , his father was a football coach in South Dakota, never wants his team to get too far up or down. He has instilled in them to truly take it a game at a time.
6. Neyland set an all time decibel level of 124 or something like that during the Bama game which is analogous to a jet aircraft carrier. One of the reasons Bama had so many penalties was the noise …3/4 of the game was during the day. Night game… not good … think if UK basketball had been really down and all of a sudden were performing like a machine …and were ranked 3d with 13 first place votes ? They are going berserk down there and will be Saturday.
7. Brother in law told me this morning that Tim Irwin, a former Vol who is a judge and was on the all-time Minnesota Vikings team said the way he would play Tennessee would be to blitz… a lot.
Then, in the next breath, he said, I don’t know how in the hell anybody would defend Tennessee.
8. Their secondary, which sucks already has some injuries.
Lastly, Cat’s schedule does not compare to Tennessee’s, which someone said somewhere and another thread.
They have beaten FOUR teams that were ranked When they played them…
I just looked up strength of schedule to date:
1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Tennessee
38. Kentucky
(We can all mentally masturbate about that, but I truly think that until Kentucky starts to schedule intersectional games like Tennessee has done for years with Oregon, UCLA, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, we cannot say that. WE NEED TO DROP LOUISVILLE, AND SCHEDULE ONE BIG INTERSECTIONAL GAME A YEAR)
Just stating, for the most part, FACTS
