He’ll be looking to fix that issue this season.
If you think back to 2021 and 2022, there’s just been something missing from the Josh Heupel Tennessee offense. Heupel and company have been forced to play a different way since Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt left for the league, leaning on one of the strongest run games in the country.
What made Tennessee so dangerous though was the threat of that explosive, downfield passing attack. To be blunt, it just hasn’t been there during the last two seasons with Nico Iamaleava and Joe Milton running the show. No wide receiver really emerged as a consistent threat either.
Former offensive coordinator Alex Golesh leaving for the South Florida job is another factor you could perhaps point to.
Current offensive coordinator Joey Halzle knows this trend has to change. The challenge with getting that part of the offense going this season will be doing it with so many new faces, particularly at quarterback.
“That’s been the entire focus of the offseason,” Halzle said of getting the explosive passing game back. “Is when people are playing really really soft and dropping in coverage, how do we keep being explosive in the passing game? And that’s why, once again, we ran the ball the way we did last year. But it’s not going to be that we’re going to just say that that’s par for the course now.
“The entire focus of this offseason is how do we get our playmakers in space with the ball in their hands where they can run and do what we’ve recruited them here to do.”
Those playmakers now consist of Chris Brazzell, Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley — the only three receivers with playing experience. Alabama transfer Amari Jefferson is coming off of injury, while true freshmen Travis Smith, Radarious Jackson and Joakim Dodson all will likely find their way to the field quickly.
Tennessee badly needs those top three to take big steps forward, and Kelsey Pope will have to get these freshmen up to speed over the next four weeks. Can Pope find a threat that can take the top off of defenses? Matthews and Brazzell have flashed in that category. Staley was a track athlete in high school. Travis Smith brings a 6-4 frame and a big wingspan to the table.
Finding your Cedric Tillman or Jalin Hyatt would go a long way towards solving this issue.
“So feel like we’ve made some changes,” Halzle said. “We’ve done some things differently, but we’re never going to lose sight of who we are, which is to be extremely aggressive with how we call it, to push the tempo, to make people play in space, but what are the one or two little different things that we can do that help free people up and when people are playing really, really soft and saying, alright, you’re not going over the top today, What are we going to do to attack that and not let them set the directive of the game.”
Halzle and Heupel countered last season with two tight end sets, which worked to start the season but fizzled in SEC play. Tennessee failed to score more than 25 points in its first four SEC games of the year, not even scoring a single point in the first halves against Arkansas, Alabama and Florida.
It’s not like the scheme wasn’t creating opportunities though. Drops here and there and a handful of key missed deep shots from Iamaleava neutered the offense. Had just a couple of those connected last season, we all could be having a pretty different conversation right now.
Straightening out those missed connections now is up to an almost entirely new group of quarterbacks and receivers, and apparently a couple of new offensive wrinkles from the coaching staff.
That’s something we’ll be watching closely when Tennessee arrives in Atlanta for the opener on August 30th.