Rippee Writes: is Tennessee a mirror image of Ole Miss?
A Tennessee scout, some Ole Miss thoughts and a Hayden Buckley top 10 finish
Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. We have a new podcast out with Charlie Burris of AtoZ Sports as we talked a lot of Ole Miss-Tennessee, the two similar offenses, how Josh Heupel has made lemonade from lemons and much more. Check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
We’ve got some Ole Miss thoughts, a Tennessee scout and a golf update.
Tennessee is close to a mirror image to Ole Miss
Ole Miss is going to head into what might be the most adverse environment it will play in this season to take on a Volunteers team looking for a program-building win on an October Saturday night in the SEC. The school announced the first sellout in over half a decade earlier today. The crowd will be doing some sort of checkerboard color coding that is apparently reserved for big games and the Volunteers will pose a test that is similar to the one Ole Miss poses to them.
Offensively, Tennessee and Ole Miss picked from the same tree. Jeff Lebby was Josh Heupel’s offensive coordinator at UCF in 2019 and served as the quarterbacks coach in 2018. Think of Tennessee as a slightly more run-heavy, faster (tempo, not team speed) version of this Ole Miss offense. The Volunteers have looked like a different team since going with Hendon Hooker over Joe Milton after the second game of the season. Hooker has completed 69.7 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns and only one interception. Granted, it’s come against a horrendous defense in Mizzou and a South Carolina team devoid of the talent needed to compete in the SEC. But where would you rank the Ole Miss defense on the Mizzou-South Carolina spectrum? That is perhaps the most fascinating question heading into this game. Let’s have a closer look at the Vols.
OFFENSE:
Hooker is playing great football. His arm isn’t as strong as Milton’s, but he is far more accurate throwing the ball and more effective in the running game. Truthfully, we haven’t seen a lot to go off of. He was decent against Florida, but got pressured and hit often behind a bad, and injured, offensive line. One of his touchdown passes came on a screen and the other was a nice deep ball, but the defender tripped and left the receiver wide open. Since then, he’s faced the likes of Mizzou and South Carolina. Not exactly steep challenges. He did throw a pair of well-placed touchdown passes against Missouri. He’s a good quarterback.
He throws primarily to Velus Jones and Cedric Tillman, but Mississippi State transfer Jevonta Payton has been a nice deep threat for the Vols this season.
The game changer for this offense has been running back Tiyon Evans. He’s 5-foot-11, 220 and is very quick and difficult to bring down after initial contact, which will be a challenge for the Rebels. Tennessee’s offensive line has been vulnerable this year, and the best recipe would seemingly be the obvious platitude of hitting him at the line of scrimmage, but as we’ve seen, that is easier said than done for this group.
DEFENSE:
I am really not sure if this defense is good, but some numbers suggest they are playing above their talent level under defensive coordinator Tim Banks. Remember, Tennessee had a mass exodus of transfers in the offseason after the end of Jeremy Pruitt’s messy tenure. A lot of those departures were on the defensive side of the ball. Like Ole Miss, there isn’t much depth. In fact, and take this with a grain of salt as I am not really locked into a the Volunteers’ two-deep, one could make the argument Ole Miss has a bit more depth in some areas. Anyway, it’s a pretty typical 4-2-5 scheme. He’s been known to show some 3-3-5 looks in the past. Truthfully, I haven’t watched enough to know whether they’ve shown a lot of that this year.
Tennessee’s defensive front is pretty good. The Vols are 7th in the SEC in both total rushing defense and yards per rush. They’re sixth in pass defense efficiency, but rank 12th in the conference in pass yards allowed. That tells me they’re actually pretty good against the run and teams are having to throw on them more often to move the ball. This seems to added up with the fact that opponents are throwing an average of 36 times per game against the Vols. I will be interested to see the game plan Lane Kiffin and Jeff Lebby create. Last week, there was a concerted effort to run the football and wear Arkansas down. Hell, Ole Miss threw 21 times with a Heisman candidate at quarterback. What does this week look like?
Other notes:
Former Lafayette High standout and Alabama signee Brandon Turnage is playing pretty good football for them on the back end. He transferred in the offseason.
Tennessee is pretty good on third down and is converting 49.4 percent of them. Only Alabama and Missouri are better.
The Vols have allowed 13 touchdowns in 19 opponent red zone trips. Ole Miss, by comparison 18 of 23. Each have two red zone stops (no points)
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A couple Ole Miss-related thoughts
If there were ever a time for D.J. Durkin to get more aggressive within this 3-2-6, it’s this week. Tennessee has allowed 20 sacks this year. That’s the worst mark in the SEC. You know what sacks do? Get opponents behind the sticks. When opponents are behind the sticks, they are drastically less likely to convert first downs. I don’t think Ole Miss will come out victorious if its defense is on the field for 95 plays, or anywhere in that neighborhood, again. Getting off the field on third down will be crucial in a game that features two defenses with little depth. It’s not rocket science. If Ole Miss sits back in coverage and allows five to block three, it’s going to be a frustrating night from a viewership standpoint. I am fascinated to see how the defense looks, particularly if it gets Jake Springer back. That will not only bolster the defense overall, but will presumably instill a bit more trust in the secondary, which might in turn make Durkin more inclined to blitz.
If Ole Miss is able to run the football successfully, it will be a long night for the Volunteers defense. We’ve seen what this offense looks like when it can’t run well, and while Tennessee doesn’t have the defensive front of an Alabama, the Vols are still pretty good up front. The first 8-10 running plays in this game will be telling, in my opinion.
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Buckley backdoors another top 10
I am a little late on this but Tupelo native and Mizzou Alum Hayden Buckley fired a Sunday 64 to vault up the leaderboard into a T-8 finish at the Shriner’s Open in Las Vegas last week. This comes on the heels of finishing 4th at the Sanderson Farms Championship. It’s hard to overstate how crucial it is for rookies to play well early on when they get their opportunity. Each made cut and each high finish improves your standing in the reshuffle, which means more events. More events = more opportunity. If Buckley goes on to win this year and have a huge rookie season, I guarantee you he will point to these pair of top 10 finishes as the crucial point in the year.
Oh, and the money is pretty sweet too. Buckley finished 32nd in the Korn Ferry Tour regular season standings, and then earned his card via two top 10 finishes in the three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events. That’s a really good year by any measure. Keep in mind, that’s a 35 event season because the pandemic forced a wraparound year, so it was basically a two-year long season. He earned $338,000 as a result. Not a bad living. Well, Buckley earned $484,000 in 14 days via the two top 10s. The PGA Tour is the good life if you can get there and stay.
He’ll tee it up next in the Bermuda Championship in two weeks.
On the horizon
Friday picks pod with LBs Greg
Football, UT-OM heavy newsletter
I’ll be on the Rebel Grove postgame show per usual
Sunday postgame show with Weldon
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