It may be this simple.
We knew it wouldn’t be all rainbows and sunshine for the Tennessee offense once SEC play began. The Volunteers absolutely set the world on fire during the non-conference portion of the schedule, which included an absolute dismantling of NC State in Charlotte.
However, once conference play arrived, things changed — somewhat as expected. I’m not sure anyone expected it to be this much of a struggle, however.
Let’s face it, the Tennessee offense has been bad through two games of conference play. The Volunteers dealt with injuries on the offensive line against Oklahoma, giving us plenty of excuses to lean on. On top of that, Josh Heupel sat on the ball in the second half and simply cruised to a win against his old school.
Following a bye, Tennessee was able to get healthy up front, but the results didn’t follow. Arkansas sacked Nico Iamaleava on four occasions last weekend in Fayetteville. That coming off of Oklahoma getting to Nico three times in the previous game.
“Certainly capable last week of attacking and performing better than we did in the run game and in the pass game,” Heupel said. “Again, some of the things that we control, not taking anything away from Arkansas, but some of the things that we control, we did not handle very well. You heard me say it already, but communication was a big part of it and then the penalties just changes the way the game is played. Too many third-and-longs so you got to be ready to go attack what we see on game day.”
Some of the pass protection reps were just downright ugly. With Tennessee’s ultra-fast, quick-read offense, that certainly can throw off rhythm and tempo. Iamaleava has been forced to go off script quite a bit so far, which he’s more than capable of doing, but the initial plan just doesn’t seem to be working enough.
For the Tennessee offensive line, the pass protection just flat out has to be better. That falls mainly on tackles John Campbell and Lance Heard.
“I love those guys, believe in those guys,” Heupel said of his tackles this week. “Those two, like pretty much everybody offensively, can perform at a higher level as we go and have performed at a higher level than they did the other night and some of that’s just ordinary things. Fundamentals, technique, alignment, assignment and technique.”
Tennessee hasn’t been great in opening up run lanes, either. Sure, Dylan Sampson had 138 rushing yards against the Razorbacks, but 53 of those came on a single run. When it came down to it at the end of the game and Tennessee needed to chew clock, there was nothing doing for the run game. That’s certainly part of this struggling pass game equation, too.
“As the game went on, we didn’t play as clean,” Heupel said of the Arkansas finish. “Some of that’s Nico. Some of that’s the guys around him. At the quarterback position, takes 10 guys around you playing at a high level, too. So sum of all parts, all 11 operating, doing, I’m going to say ordinary things that are really high level, consistently is the difference in the ball game.”
It was tough to envision the offense struggling like this just three weeks ago. Nico has just 352 passing yards in conference play, while his leading receiver on the season (Dont’e Thornton) has just 282 yards through five games. Though the blame can’t totally be taken off of Iamaleava, getting him some consistent protection going forward is a must.
Tennessee faces another talented defensive front this week with Florida coming to town. The Gators have 13 sacks on the year, which is good for 24th in the country to this point. The good news? Florida is struggling against the run, giving up 172 yards per game on the ground. That ranks 101st nationally.
This sets up nicely for the Volunteers to get Dylan Sampson going early, which should take all of the pressure off of Iamaleava to deliver down the field. But once again, it’s going to come down to the performance of this inconsistent offensive line.