The Volunteers continue to take a lot of criticism as a whole football package (though, not as much today as usual, having had a great day yesterday). In this post, I’d like to try to break down the first six games for the team under coach Lane Kiffin, and explain why I think that he and his coaching staff are doing a great job so far of starting to turn this football program around. As with all major changes, things will take time, but I think they’re off to a great start, and here’s why:

Pre-season/recruiting:

It can hardly be argued that Kiffin has put together a fantastic staff, and despite getting off to a late start, their recruiting efforts were fantastic, bringing in a pile of fantastic young players such as Bryce Brown, Nukeese Richardson, David Oku, Janzen Jackson and more. Not only did he bring them in, but several of them have already started to develop successfully by getting a lot of meaningful game experience in every game this season. The next few years are looking pretty good with regards to talent.

Week 1: Western Kentucky

The started off the season on the right foot by absolutely destroying the Hilltoppers (what a great name for a team, isn’t it? Well, I like it anyway) 63-7. The Vols seemed to play well in nearly every aspect of the game. The defense looked impenetrable, the offense looked much improved over last year, and Jonathan Crompton looked like an actual SEC quarterback, throwing five TDs (although he also threw two interceptions, but we’ll get to that more later). It was a good way to start the season, but it *was* against about as weak of a Division 1 team as you can come by. No offense to Western Kentucky, but they have a long way to go to be able to compete at all in D1A college football.

Week 2: UCLA

The Vol Nation came back down to reality during and after the UCLA game. Despite the fact that the game was at home, and the team and fans were riding the high from the previous week, the Bruins came in and made us look like the team we’d just beaten the week before. Despite a great effort by the defense, Jonathan Crompton regressed to his previously known self and threw three interceptions, and even the running game couldn’t get hardly anything going. The team almost couldn’t convert at all in the red zone (with one exception), and generally looked completely impotent on offense against a solid, but not exceptional UCLA defense. I feel like this was the “I see” moment for coach Kiffin where he realized just exactly what he was dealing with in Crompton: a QB who, despite playing fairly well in practice, struggles with playing consistently under real, live, game-time pressure. Now, how was the new coach going to deal with this?

Week 3: Florida

“Florida week” is a sacred time in Volunteer country. Its arguably the biggest week of the year for Volunteer football most years. This year was no exception, other than the fact that almost everyone, including and especially Florida, was expecting a bloody, ugly blowout. Coach Kiffin and his staff this week were forced to figure out a game plan to deal with the number one team in the country. How would they do it?

Well, they came up with a pretty good game plan as it turned out. With the Vols passing game practically incompetent, they came up with a plan to play old-school, cram-it-down-their-throats, grind-it-out football in an attempt to keep the pressure on Florida by keeping the ball out of the hands of their offense. The plan almost worked. Tennessee’s defense held the Gator’s offense to their lowest production all year, while their running game put enough together to keep the game close. Unfortunately, they just couldn’t convert in the red zone a couple of times, keeping them from pulling off the unlikely upset. Despite all of that, it was at least an encouraging loss for Tennessee who showed that they have what it takes to compete with the great teams in the NCAA. It also showed that this coaching staff knows what they’re doing, and knows how to put together a good game plan. Now to move forward.

Week 4: Ohio

Knowing that “grinding it out” was never going to last in the SEC, coach Kiffin and staff went to work this week trying to figure out how to get a successful passing game working, and trying to figure out what would work for Jonathan Crompton to be productive with this offense. The game against the Bobcats featured an awful lot of passing on both sides of the ball, which turned out to be both good and bad. Jonathan Crompton completed only 50% of the 34 passes that he threw, most of which were in the first half, including two TDs and an interception. Not great to say the least, but he at least showed signs of being a bit more comfortable throwing the ball. He lacked the “deer in the headlights” looks that he had shown in previous games from the backfield. The offense went back to the running game in the second half to secure the win, but overall it wasn’t pretty. Another highlight of this game was that Ohio threw 52 passes for 312 yards against the Vols in this game, highlighting some weaknesses in the Vols defensive backfield. That, along with losing their valuable middle linebacker Nick Reveiz for the season to a knee injury, put the Vols in a precarious position heading back into SEC play against Auburn the next week.

Week 5: Auburn

Auburn came into town undefeated on the season, looking like a team much improved over last year under another first-year head coach Gene Chizik. Coach Kiffin, moving forward with his knowledge that continued success in the running game could only remain when offset by at least a decent passing game, he returned to the air in this game, with mixed results. Auburn’s defense appeared resolved to shut down Tennessee’s strong running game, seeming to almost “dare” the Vols to throw the ball. Jonathan Crompton, in my opinion, started to actually show signs of life and competency in this game, throwing for 259 yards, two TDs and no interceptions, despite getting almost no help at all from receivers who gave the impression that they’d just recently transitioned from offensive line positions. The receivers were running sloppy routes, dropping passes that were right on the mark, missing key blocks that ended up costing the team points, fighting with coaches (Brandon Warren was ultimately dismissed from the team as a result of what was reported to be an insubordinate exchange with the receivers coach on the sideline during the game, a move that I personally thought was a smart one on the part of the coaching staff…there’s no room for that kind of behavior on a successful team) and sometimes not even paying attention and looking for the ball when passes were thrown to them (one had a pass bounce right off his helmet because he wasn’t even looking for the ball…what’s up with that?!).

The defense, again, held their own, holding Auburn to their lowest offensive production of the year, but with an offense that was completely unable to put anything together at all, despite Crompton finally doing his part, there was little chance for the Vols to pull off a win. Auburn left with the victory.

Week 6: Georgia

Tennessee seemed like they were finally able to put all of the pieces together this week against Georgia. Despite the fact that Georgia has been struggling so far this year, the Vols were *completely* dominant in every aspect of this game with the exception of special teams (which were horrible at best). Jonathan Crompton, for the first time in his career in my opinion, finally looked like the SEC quarterback that he is, against a legitimate SEC opponent. He was 20 of 27 for 310 yards, four TDs and only one interception (a tipped ball that was, admittedly, thrown a bit behind the receiver who actually got both hands on the ball, which, in my opinion, should have been caught…any pass that a receiver can get both hands on can and should be caught, thrown behind him or not, but that’s just me). He got a lot of help this game from receivers who looked like they’d been ridden pretty hard in practice this week, running good routes, catching passes, and even making plays after the catch. That combined with another great running game by both Montario Hardesty and Bryce Brown, and the result was a pretty impressive offensive performance. The best I’ve ever seen by the Vols.

The defense also played a great game, only allowing Georgia’s offense to score three points on a 53 yard field goal (that would’ve been good from 65 by the way…Georgia’s kicker has a bomb of a leg, nice kick), and taking three turnovers away from the Bulldogs.

The only real weakness in this game was the special teams. Georgia scored ten points on their one field goal, and an interception returned for a TD. Had the special teams been able to perform at all, they might’ve prevented the kickoff returned for a touchdown, and the punt blocked out of the end zone for a safety, and this could’ve been a REALLY embarrassing defeat for the Bulldogs at 45-10.

Where are we at?

Considering this high-level look at both the performance of the team and the coaching staff overall, I see steady signs of improvement each week on both parts. If, and I do mean if…this team has a strong history of inconsistency…they are able to stay the course and continue to improve in this manner, 2009 could prove to be a very successful season for the Vols, and a fantastic head coaching debut for coach Kiffin. I truly believe that if this team can carry this momentum with them down to Tuscaloosa in two weeks after their bye next week, and play like they did yesterday against Georgia, they have a very legitimate shot to beat the number 2 ranked team in the country, Alabama.

Conclusion

Another good recruiting class for the Vols next year, hopefully with a QB that can get off to a bit faster of a start than Crompton has the past couple of years, and I really believe coach Kiffin can restore the Volunteers to their rightful position at or near the top of the SEC within the next couple of years. We’ll see what ends up happening, but I think that at least all of the pieces are in place for that to happen. Go Vols!!