Rocky Flop

Porter -

After watching the Tennessee Vols suffer the second biggest blowout of the four College Football Playoff games on Saturday, it became clear to me why I’m not a fan of Josh Heupel. The man doesn’t have a spiritual bone in his body, which is a cardinal sin when coaching football at any level in the South. He might be a wiz when it comes to the Xs and Os, but he ain’t no Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, that’s for dang sure. Josh Heupel didn’t need to win this game but getting punked in front of 30,000 die-hard Vols’ fans felt like a drastic setback.

The team wasn’t prepared mentally to face an Ohio State team ready to ride or die on that field Saturday night. Buckeye senior defensive end Jack Sawyer embodied this attitude by terrorizing the UT sideline before the game. Some of you may not like it, but this is how you intimidate and get respect on the football field, not by pithy comments in post-game interviews and concert walk-outs with Morgan Wallen.

Mike Tyson once said in an interview “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” and the Vols got TKO’d in the first quarter giving up 21 unanswered points. Even in today’s noticeably less violent game, rage is still an important part of a player’s mindset and these boys had absolutely none of it. Watching the defense get blown off the ball and our corners get torched, it’s clear this team needs to figure out how to refill the tank and come back next year with an emphasis on redeeming themselves from this embarrassment.

No more “we’re just happy to be here” crap. It’s time to re-adopt the old Johnny Majors' Motto “Attack, Attack, Attack always Attack”. With that in mind here are five things the Vols need to do next year:

  1. Drop the Air Raid Heupel was lucky to have Hendon Hooker make his scheme look good. Now he has Temu Vince Young back there staring down his main receiver and being unable to switch to secondaries. What’s the point of having four wideouts if Nico can’t see them anyway? Change the offense to what Mack Brown used to do with VY. Three wideouts and two running backs in the backfield to give Nico maximum time to throw. Or, just run the ball. The boy is a playmaker stop making him think.
  2. Big Running Backs Dylan Sampson gave us all he had this season. With 256 carries over the course of the season, it was only a matter of time before he broke down at only 5’11” 200 lbs. Convert a defensive end or line-backer to running back. Derrick Henry brought the big, bruising runner back into fashion. If Heupel wants to keep running it this much, unleash a 240 lb. monster on the defense. 
  3. Sack the QB More Tennessee was 8th out of 16 teams this year in QB sacks. As good as this defense was at holding teams' offenses in check, this is pretty bad for a team that wants be at the top. The defensive coordinator is going to have to start taking more risk—hell, the secondary is already getting cooked every other play anyway. I say roll the dice.
  4. We want George The Program needs to invest heavily in George Macintyre with the goal of building him up to be the gunslinging quarterback of the future. The Brentwood Academy senior has dazzled the high school football scene with 8,000+ yards and 61 touchdowns. An athletic pocket-passer is just what the Vols need to truly take advantage of Heupel's passing scheme.
  5. Beat Georgia Heupel has managed to get the Crimson Tide monkey off our back, but now it’s Georgia they can’t seem to beat. The Vols will have UGA at home in 2025 and will need to stop the streak of losses to Kirby Smart.