Tennessee (2-2, 0-1 SEC) has played four games under first-year head coach Josh Heupel.
The Vols’ offense has been efficient at times, but has not pieced together a complete unit.
Tennessee’s offense has produced five 40-plus yard plays from scrimmage this season under Heupel. Quarterback Hendon Hooker has accounted for four 40-yard plays this season.
The Vols recorded three offensive plays of 40-plus yards during its 10-game, SEC only 2020 season.
Tennessee’s five offensive plays of 40 or more yards in 2021 is half of the Vols’ total in 2019. Tennessee produced 10 offensive plays of 40-plus yards in 13 games during the 2019 campaign.
Tennessee’s offense, however, has been stagnant at times through four games under Heupel.
The Vols have not been able to find chemistry in its veer and shoot vertical passes, and do not have a consistent running game.
As detailed in the e-book “Josh Heupel’s Offense”, Heupel played quarterback collegiately at Weber State, Snow College and Oklahoma, coming from Central High School in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
During Heupel’s time as Oklahoma’s quarterback, he played for offensive coordinator Mike Leach.
Mesh is a part of Leach’s offense and something Heupel has steered away from since implementing Baylor’s veer and shoot scheme as Missouri’s offensive coordinator from 2016-17.
Austin James Smith has coached with the likes of Hal Mumme, June Jones and Noel Mazzone, who all teach various Air Raid and run and shoot concepts. Smith also played high school football for Super Bowl champion Doug Pederson.
His background parallels Heupel’s.
Smith joined the show “Football Two-A-Days” and discussed Tennessee’s offense through four games.
In Week 4, Tennessee unexpectadly featured mesh in a 4th and 5 situation on Florida’s 30-yard line, down 24-14 with 6 minutes, 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Smith discussed Heupel’s veer and shoot approach with its current personnel and if implementing mesh would be an easy task within the season.
“That’s kind of the thing in evaluation,” Smith said. “The Baylor offense worked because of personnel, but not everybody has an RG III (Robert Griffin III), Bryce Petty that can throw it 65-yards down the field from the college left hash, two yards to the sideline and have guys like (KD) Cannon and guys that made it to the league like Josh Gordon. They had some serious players.
“When you are splitting out wide, you cannot run any out-routes, so you are limiting trees of maybe a better receiver can do versus a corner if he was condensed, and your quarterback cannot get out there anyway on verticals. It might make you change, and maybe that is something they are evaluating and are seeing how that looks, seeing the speeds and seeing the inconsistencies with the deep ball. It could be something that could be adjusted real easily. It is real easy to put in mesh. It is all on the quarterback, whether or not he can go through a progression. The key to mesh, that a lot of people miss, is that you always got to check the vertical shot first, because you are sitting there looking at it. That vertical shot is one-on-one, and then you pass that up, you want to get to the mesh, and now they are keying in on the mesh with two or three guys when you passed up on that one-on-one deep, well you are not going to have nothing. That’s something to evaluate.”
Another element of Heupel’s offense is tempo and snapping the football when it is essentially spotted. Tempo can make a defense tired, but it can also do the same for offensive personnel, as well as negate a quarterback from having a pre-snap read.
“The thing about faster than fast tempo, is that you got to watch, is that you don’t condition your players to play at a pace, that is almost like a jogger’s jog,” Smith said. “If you go so fast, it is hard to go 100 percent 12 straight plays as fast as you can. You got to make sure your rotation is in, guys are coming in, if you are going to go that fast, that punch you’re swinging, your speed and effort has to stay 100 percent. A lot of times, those faster and fast tempo teams, they are out there giving it their best shot, but after that first, second series, you are still trying to go that fast, but now they are at 70 percent, 80 percent, sometimes 60 percent because they are tired. You might catch the defense off once to twice, but you are hurting yourself.
“You can go really fast, but you can also go three-and-out really fast — and the defense is back out on the field in less than 60 seconds. I don’t ever want to say something is ever gimmicky on offense, but if your whole base offense is to go so fast, that you catch a defense off-guard, it is a little gimmicky in a way. The quarterback pre-snap clues one-high, two-high, corner’s depths. He is playing so fast he is trying to get his eyes somewhere quick — the pro to it too is that it makes it real simple for a quarterback — he is just being asked to throw a football to one place or run.”
The entire show with Smith can be listened to here or below. Smith discusses Heupel’s offense, mesh, pre-snap reads, tempo and quarterback half rolls.
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