This is starting to look like Heupel’s offense
KNOXVILLE – With too much changing in college football, let’s take comfort in one thing remaining as we always remembered. Spring games are dull, and for the most part, inconsequential.
I must admit, however, to enjoying a rare treat in the aftermath to Saturday’s Orange and White Game at Neyland Stadium. It was amusing to see Tennessee football coach Josh Heupel put in the same position that he has placed so many other coaches. Heupel was having to explain to the media why his Vols defensive backs gave up big passing plays to the fast-break offense coached by … Heupel.
“We were just out of position,” he said.
Some others might smile to hear that. Know who else was out of position? Pretty much every secondary Tennessee faced during the 2022 season, including the one coached by Nick Saban.
Tennessee’s 2023 season? Didn’t happen nearly as much.
So my biggest takeaway from Tennessee’s 2024 spring game? Heupel’s newest offense is already looking more like the 2022 model and less like 2023. Vols quarterbacks on Saturday threw touchdowns of 71, 63, 27 and 13 yards. They combined for 403 passing yards in a “game” that used a running clock and lasted only 99 minutes of real time.
Wasn’t a byproduct of Nico Iamaleava’s brilliance, either. The Vols’ newest quarterback sensation threw for 96 yards and a touchdown. But backup Gaston Moore (184) and third-stringer Jake Merklinger (105) outdid Iamaleava statistically, largely because they were throwing to a rotation of “the deepest wide receiver pool that we’ve had,” Heupel said.
Coveted transfer Chris Brazzell of Tulane caught the 71-yard touchdown from Merklinger. Promising freshman Mike Matthews caught a 63-yard touchdown from Moore before leaving to attend
his high school prom.
Merklinger scrambled for a touchdown after a pass interference on a long incompletion. Quarterback Ryan Damron even completed a deep ball, though Trey Weary was out of bounds when he caught it.
Iamaleava had a highlight, too, to help get Vols fans through the long summer ahead. He flipped an easy 27yard TD to an open Chas Nimrod.
I’ve not even mentioned Dont’e Thornton, the hyped former Oregon transfer who has reportedly enjoyed a strong spring. And returning standouts Squirrel White and Bru Mccoy didn’t even play Saturday. A total of 13 Vols caught at least one pass anyway.
“A lot more receiving depth than we’ve had before,” said Iamaleava, echoing Heupel.
The prospect of Tennessee’s passing game becoming explosive again in 2024
is encouraging for any Vols fan who endured the dip of 2023, which was such a letdown after Heupel’s first two seasons.
His 2022 Vols seemed unstoppable with quarterback Hendon Hooker. They surpassed 500 offensive yards in nine of 13 games, including that 52-49 victory over Saban’s Alabama.
In 2023, they only did it against UTSA, Uconn and Vanderbilt.
Felt timid in comparison. Watered down. It never made much sense how Tennessee had college football’s strongest-armed quarterback in Joe Milton and seemed so reluctant to heave it deep. A lot of dinking and dunking by last season’s Vols, and too many instances in which the offense went quiet for long stretches, as happened in each of the four losses and one of Tennessee’s better victories. Milton threw for only 100 yards in beating Texas A&M.
Overall, Tennessee went from fifth in the nation in passing in 2022 to No. 50 last season and in scoring, from first to No. 36. Heupel’s offense was still respectable with Milton instead of Hooker, but last season taught us that it’ll take more than respectable to win a championship the way Tennessee wants to win – with its foot on the gas pedal, pressuring defenses into errors.
When those mistakes happen, the Vols must be able to punish defenses on the scoreboard. We’re about to find out of their inability to do that as well with the pass in 2023 was an indictment of the scheme or the personnel.
Because Tennessee’s personnel in 2024, it’s better.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_estes. Click here to bookmark and follow all of his work.