Mountaineers hope they’ll adjust quickly to unknown Vols offense
KNOXVILLE — The West Virginia football staff compiled a few binders worth of information on Tennessee for head coach Dana Holgorsen to review in advance of Saturday’s season opener between the teams.
Honing in on Tennessee’s defensive approach is a straightforward task, as five seasons of video on head coach Jeremy Pruitt’s time as a defensive coordinator at three schools should provide a template for what to expect from that unit.
But when the Volunteers’ offense takes the field at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, it will be largely a mystery. Offensive coordinator Tyson Helton shared play-calling duties at Western Kentucky and Southern California from 2014 to 2017, but now the show belongs to him.
With influence from the rest of the staff, including former Colorado State offensive coordinator Will Friend, Helton will have the element of surprise in his favor as he calls plays and attempts to keep pace with the Mountaineers’ high-powered attack.
“I’m glad we have such continuity on defense with our coaching staff to be able to adjust to what they do,” Holgorsen said. “Good coaches make
adjustments quick. Game one, we’re going to have to try and get a feel for what they’re doing and communicate it with our coaching staff and make adjustments on top of that.”
Gone is the shotgun-exclusive read-option attack of former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones. In is a pro-style attack from Helton that, by design, remains largely shrouded in mystery. Tennessee used bland play calls in its spring game and has closed nearly all of its practice time to media since Pruitt arrived and hired Helton away from his brother’s Southern California staff.
Helton referred to his attack as “multiple” earlier this month.
Holgorsen said “we’ve accumulated video on everything,” likely meaning that Helton’s teams at Southern Cal and Western Kentucky have been thoroughly dissected.
West Virginia also reviewed Tennessee’s video from 2017 to get an idea for the Vols’ personnel, even though the scheme is now different.
That work yielded at least a few insights.
“They’ve got dudes on offense,” Holgorsen said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”
Junior receivers Marquez Callaway and Jauan Jennings are among the “dudes” Holgorsen mentioned by name. Both could test a largely unproven crop of West Virginia cornerbacks. Tennessee is also expected to employ a fullback and tight ends in its attack at times.
“To me, a fullback and tight end kind of go hand in hand,” Pruitt said on the “Vol Calls” radio show Wednesday night. “Those guys have got to be able to block in the ‘C’ area. They’ve got to be able to lead up on linebackers. You would love to have a guy that can stretch the field vertically. So hopefully we’ve got some guys that we can get involved in that way.”
Pruitt prefaced that information by saying, “Well, we don’t want to give West Virginia a scouting report right here.”
Such is the level of secrecy the Vols have maintained in trying to keep the element of surprise in their favor.
“Lot of unknowns,” Holgorsen said.