Since Josh Heupel has taken over at Tennessee, their offense has been taken to new heights. Heupel will face his biggest challenge yet, with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide coming into town for a top 10 battle. Over the past 2 years, Tennessee has been in it’s fair share of shootouts and this weekend probably won’t be any different. With a healthy Bryce Young coming back and Hendon Hooker running the show for the Vols, we should be in for a show. The Tennessee offense is currently top 10 in the country in both passing yards and scoring, so what should we expect to see against an Alabama defense that is holding opponents to 12.5 points per game and has one of the best fronts in the country? Let’s break it down with a 45-42 win over #18 Kentucky last season.
Perimeter Screen Game
This was the first play of the game. So many things are accomplished here in a simple key screen to the X receiver. Regardless of how many yards this play gets, the use of motion gives Heupel an idea of how Kentucky plans to adjust moving forward in the game. I also like the offensive line cutting on this play. You can see the defensive end almost gets in the throwing lane, but the cut block causes just enough hesitation to get in the way. I’m also a huge fan of the cross blocking by the receivers. Both receivers have great leverage, the slot can pin the nickel inside and the H back in motion can take the most dangerous defender outside, this leaves the X one on one with the safety and he does the rest. Lastly, give your QB an easy throw to start the game and let him get in a rhythm.
It’s 3rd & 18. Alabama loves to send pressure on 3rd and long and play games up front. This screen gives you a hat for a hat on the perimeter and gave Tennessee a 4th and manageable and allowed them to tie up the game. Staying on the field against Alabama and converting 3rd/4th downs will be a big key for Tennessee in this game.
Formations and Tempo
The play before this, Tennessee ran a jet power read option that got stopped for no gain. Too often, coaches will allow what happened on the play before stop them from calling something they know will work. Tennessee knew they could use tempo and formation changes to confuse the Kentucky defense and they stuck with it. This allowed them to get a 4 over 3 numbers advantage in the unbalanced formation and the double posts clear the wheel to come wide open.
Here is another great example of Heupel keeping the same personnel on the field and changing the formation to not allow the defense to sub and make adjustments. We’ll actually come back to the play before here in a little bit. The play before, the Vols motioned into empty and had a scramble for a first down. Now they bring the running back and H back into the backfield and run a simple zone RPO with all hitches and a bluff-pop route by the H back. The QB can check pre-snap if he likes any of the hitches, if not he will read the backside LB for the pop route to the H back. If Kentucky had a little more time to communicate, they might have stopped this play, but the tempo and formation change causes enough confusion to give Tennessee a walk-in touchdown
Deep Shots/QB Scramble
This is a staple for the Tennessee offense. A post by the #1 WR on both sides and a wheel/comeback read by the slot receiver. The most important thing for this play to be successful is the release by the receivers. They both need to press vertical for about 5 yards to not allow the defenders to recognize the switch and pass it off. On both sides, the post ends up occupying the corner and the safety and gives the slot an opportunity to make the flat defender wrong. The flat defender tries to sit a little too long and gets beat over the top. If you look at the bottom of the screen, you can see the comeback adjustment if the flat defender does play over the top, which they completed later in the game.
If Alabama has one weakness in their defense, it might be their corners with no help. They do a great job jumping routes and playing the ball when they know they have safety help, but they were beat deep a couple of times against A&M last week when they were singled up. This is 2nd and 6 right after crossing midfield. Tennessee knows that in this formation on this spot on the field that Kentucky is going to go with 1 high safety and decides to take a shot. I like that they put the single receiver to the field and the token fake kept the middle safety from being able to make a play on the ball. Great decision to go with the stutter route to use the corner's aggression against him.
I told you guys I’d come back to this one. This is the play before Tennessee scored on the pop pass that we showed earlier. I love how this play ties in all of the keys to beating Alabama. It gives them a different formation and motion to adjust to and they’ve hit a couple of screens on them now, so they pump the screen and try to take one of those deep shots we just talked about. Kentucky covers it really well, but all of that going on opens up one thing (and maybe the only thing) that plagues Nick Saban teams, the quarterback scramble. Hendon Hooker is a great runner and if Alabama doesn’t have a spy on him at all times, he’ll make them pay.
Tennessee has been one of my favorite offenses to study this year and I love the versatility and weapons that they have. I love even more that Heupel puts them in opportunities to be successful and you can tell that in the short time he’s been there, that his players have bought into the system. This game should be an offensive masterpiece by both teams and I hope we look back on this being one of the best games of the year.
