Tennessee football: The Vols' offensive identity is ... what exactly?
In late 2008, Lane Kiffin was hired to replace Phillip Fulmer as Tennessee’s head coach. Part of the reason he was picked by athletic director Mike Hamilton was his promise of bringing an all-star coaching staff to Knoxville.
Lane’s dad Monte, the well-respected defensive coordinator, was brought in for the same role at Tennessee. There were also Ed Orgeron, Eddie Gran, Lance Thompson, Willie Mack Garza … and Jim Chaney, then working with the St. Louis Rams, as offensive coordinator.
Chaney’s role would not be that of a typical offensive coordinator. Lane Kiffin would be the one calling plays. The overwhelming majority of offensive coordinators call their own plays, but Chaney said he was fine with the arrangement.
Chaney has had a long and successful career. He coached Drew Brees at Purdue, nearly won a national title as the OC at Georgia and today is in his second stint holding that job at Tennessee.
But it’s not working. It’s just not working.
Against Arkansas on Saturday, Tennessee’s offensive struggles were on display. The Vols’ 13-0 advantage at intermission quickly turned into a 14-13 deficit on the way to a 24-13 loss. Jarrett Guarantano, who wasn’t asked to do very much in the first half, left early in the second due to a head injury. His replacement was Brian Maurer, who threw 4 passes. All were incomplete.
True freshman Harrison Bailey finally got some playing time, completing 6 of 9 passes for 65 yards and an interception in the 4th quarter. Each completion happened while the Arkansas defense was allowing everything to be open in the middle of the field so the clock could keep running. In all, the Vols threw for only 107 yards the entire night. In the first 58 minutes? They accounted for only 42 passing yards.
As good as the Vols’ running game can be (Eric Gray rushed for 123 yards and the Vols’ lone touchdown against Arkansas), unless they turn into 1980s Nebraska, they aren’t winning anything by throwing for 107 yards.
Chaney and quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke have had 2 years to develop someone — anyone — to take control of the offense. Guarantano’s “resurgence” in the 2nd half of the 2019 season now looks like a mirage, assisted by a weak schedule and a solid defense. Backups J.T. Shrout and Maurer haven’t shown any signs that they are SEC-caliber signal callers. We haven’t seen enough to know what Bailey can or cannot accomplish.
But we do know Chaney is making $1.6 million. And Tennessee is not getting their money’s worth.
Which leads me back to 2009, when Chaney was fine with Lane Kiffin calling the plays. Hey, maybe I’m reading too much into this. And it has been 11 long years since Lane was patrolling the Neyland Stadium sideline. But current Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt is a defensive coach. Offense is not his specialty. He needs a confident coach to run things on that side of the football. Chaney hasn’t shown that he’s capable of being that guy.
Pruitt’s decisions to pass up field-goal opportunities while down 2 scores not once but twice in the final minutes against Arkansas was coaching malpractice of the highest order. It brought back memories of the inept Butch Jones in-game coaching choices that cost the Vols some big wins in 2015 and 2016. That’s not good company for Pruitt to be in these days.
The Vols have lost 4 straight games and will be favored in only 1 of their last 4. A 3-7 final mark is not only a possibility, but a probability. Pruitt likely will survive this, his 3rd season in Knoxville, if for no other reason than paying millions of dollars in buyout money during a pandemic would be a PR nightmare.
But changes will have to be made to his coaching staff. And unless the Vols offense can show significant improvement over the next few weeks, preferably with Bailey at the helm, it will be difficult to make a convincing argument to retain Chaney and Weinke.
I think Pruitt should have taken the field goal to cut it to one score and played Bailey sooner. They need to go ahead and buy Pruitt out now before it gets worse.
Pruitt should set up a bank account in the caymans and flee the country disguised as a bald loser.
That would not be a disguise.
Nothing against bald people.
I totally agree with this article. I have been all for giving the man 5 years to compete for the East and the sec but not to compete for a .500 record. I also don’t expect him to be fired this season unless one of the haslams or another booster write the entire check. Even then it probably won’t happen, as the writer suggests, due to the PR. After all we are living in the most PC culture in history Right now and only going to get worse. But I stray. The thing is Pruitt has played(or not played) himself into extremely hot seat status so what good OC is going to want to hop on that train. I don’t know if it’s all Chaney or if Pruitt is making sone demands. But it always lies with the HC. What a train wreck we have become over the years.
Ps: I didn’t mean to give pruitts D a pass (no pun intended) either. The slant pass has absolutely destroyed them this season. For a defensive “guru” his defense has regressed over the season. They simply aren’t very good. Will he fire ansley and himself too.
While I’m on my soapbox we finally put bailey in and run 7 straight running plays before letting him attempt a pass on 4th and 4 with ark playing 3 up front. The result was inevitable. Baileys passing stats were n/a with ark giving the middle to run out the clock. We still don’t know what he can do.
Agreed. Too old now, but ten years ago even I could have ran and caught those slants on the one scoring drive. UT NEVER adjusted. AND they know it’s been a problem for weeks. Aren’t coaches supposed to fix things?
200 plus yards on the ground you don’t get a pass for that.
Years ago, when Bama offered Saban $5 mil, I said offer him $10 and bring him to UT. When Bama gave him $10, I said give him $20 and bring him to UT. Oh well. Nobody listens.
If Pruitt goes, who we gonna get? Kiffin? We know he’d jump ship at Ole Miss. Bring back Butch? UT payouts are about over and Saban ain’t gonna pay him squat.
Pruitt took JT Shrunk over Penix, who is killin it at Indiana, on the advice at whoever the OC was he brought from Cali.
Fire Chaney. Fire Friend. Fire Wenke. I’d rather have Chief and Phillip than them. Maybe Spurrier will coach QBs. He always wanted to be on The Hill.
By the time we were ready to get rid of Fulmer, Saban was already taken. I agree, however, with your principle of coughing up the money. Tennessee should have learned from Alabama. They hired (mostly) some duds after Stallings and muddled around for 10 years before waking and realizing you have to pay up to get quality. UT should have doled out the big bucks after Fulmer, but for the last 13 years they have done what Alabama did.
I don’t blame Kiffin for jumping ship for LA and USC. MOST young people with an ego would probably do the same. Dooley was thrown into the resulting mess and never had a chance. Butch was an idiotic hire. That’s all on UT. Now we have a high school coach. I’ve been a UT fan since the early 70s. I’ve seen some lows and highs. I thought of UT as an elite program, which it was even with my blind allegiance, but now UT is irrelevant in the SEC. It’s not the players. They give their lives to this. They are being let down by their leaders from the AD on down.
Still waiting for the crow pie to be served up to the media. Remember before the seaeon, the hype surrounding this team?
And who was that clown commentating feom the field? The one who called Trey Smith the preseason “best offensive lineman in college football and surely to be first off the board in the next NFL draft.” Uh, offensive guards are not a premium position and if Smith was the best lineman, he would be playing tackle. This year’s play has been a step back and characterized by late hits, penalties and cheap shots Got away with a blatant one tonight.
A rational football fan knows Oregon’s LT Sewell will be 1st off the board, followed by Bama’s LT A. Leatherwood. Smith will go lower than he would have last year, likely between 20-32. Maybe the person who influenced him to stay and waste a year in the NFL, will talk him into staying for yet another year. Smith doesn’t seem anxious to go pro anyway.
Cade Mays gets beat on a regular basis too…and we have no ride end what so ever, can’t remember his name but was getting dogged all night.
Pruitt’s recent contract extension seemed bizarre when it happened last month, and seems even more bizarre now.
People like people who remind them of themselves. Pruitt has that Fulmer bod, speaks in mumble tones. It blinded Fulmer to the reality that his chubby soulmate sucks at coaching.
These people aren’t going to learn…you can’t necessarily go with your friends as assistants, hire coaches that get the job done.
Well here is the broken record again, but I cannot help it. Chaney. It’s his fault. Here are the first five possessions of the second half for UT.
1) Run-Run-Pass(run) (5 yards) JG
2) Run-Run-Run (6 yards) Maurer enters.
3) Pass-Run-Pass (1 yard)
4) Sacked-PI 1st down | Run-Run-Pass (5 yards)
5) Run-Run-Pass (1 yard)
Now. First possession, I give a pass, though you should have anticipated their adjustment. But dang, how long did it take for you to figure out they adjusted to stop the run? Or did you not figure it out until today watching the game film?
17 plays and 7 passes and your best play (longest gain) was a PI call. And 4 of those passes were on 3rd down when they know you are likely to pass. And, on most of the running plays you could easily see ARK was set up to stop the run.
Who cares if it is a high school game, but this man (Chaney) makes millions to perform his job. Why? What makes him worth the money? So far this season it seems like he should be earning about $36K a year and per diem for road trips.
Weak head coaches will always surround themselves with weak assistants because they fear great assistants will steal their jobs.
Vols clearly all smoke crack at halftime.
Stop smoking crack at halftime.
Problem solved.
We would of won if it was crack.
Remember when all you hillbillies were on here almost two years ago crowing about how Pruitt “stole Chaney!” from Kirby, and how all us Dawg fans said, “Thank you!” and laughed at y’all?
We still laugh at y’all!
Haha Corch Meyers 2020.
And I also thought it was a terrible hire I remember freaking out on my brother when it happened. Cause I felt like we been there done that but I guess not. He did decent with the Dawgs but the Dawgs have also always been decent because of recruiting peeps wanna be a dawg.
Wonder how many more losses we’ll Volunteer out
Why didn’t Georgia get rid of him if he was so awful?
It’s not Chaney or Weinke. This is all Pruitt. It’s the same 1980s offense Pruitt had in year 1 with Helton. Make no mistake, Pruitt is the problem on offense. He needs to go.
If Pruitt doesn’t seem too bothered by losing then the fans will stop caring as well. This isn’t a question of whether or not we can afford a new coach. We can not afford NOT to. This is a business and Tennessee is paying that staff WAY too much to look like we do.
To the Vol fans, I hate to pile on here, but you guys didn’t fare too well in your last coaching hire. Apparently nobody in the country was interested except Greg Shchiano which your fanbase erroneously didn’t want.
What I’m asking to those that want to fire Mr. Potatohead is, what has changed at UT in 3 years that makes you think you’re going to have any more success this year in getting in a successful head coach to turn your program around? Meanwhile Georgia is as good if not better than it was 3 years ago. Florida is no longer the dumpster fire program it was 3 years ago when it hired Dan Mullen. Kentucky has your number. Missouri has a fresh new head coach that looks like he can turn that team around with time. Aside from throwing piles of cash at someone with a big name, you are asking a monumental job of a new head coaching search.