At ‘Wide Receiver U,’ Vols looking to revive vaunted passing attack
KNOXVILLE — Tennessee bills itself as “Wide Receiver U” because of its history of sending wideouts to the NFL.
History? That’s fine. The present? Not so much.
No Vols player accumulated more than 618 yards receiving or five touchdown catches in any of the last three seasons. Those are disappointing figures for a school that had 11 wide receivers drafted in the first round between 1977 and 2013, including the likes of Stanley Morgan, Willie Gault and Alvin Harper.
Upgrading the passing attack has been a priority at spring practice.
“We have dynamic backs,” receiver Josh Smith said Monday. “We’ve got to take the pressure off of them — and that’s what we’re going to do.”
There’s still plenty of room for improvement in that regard. The passing game was singled out for criticism after Saturday’s practice.
“We had way too many dropped footballs,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said. “We have to be able to execute better in the throw game. That will be a point of emphasis as we close out spring football.”
Tennessee doesn’t need the passing game to carry its offense. Jalen Hurd, Alvin Kamara and quarterback Joshua Dobbs rushed for a combined 2,657 yards and 30 touchdowns last season.
But the Vols do need more accuracy and explosiveness from their passing attack to contend in the Southeastern Conference.
Tennessee’s leading receiver in 2015 was Von Pearson with 38 catches for 409 yards and three touchdowns in his senior year. Every other SEC team aside from Missouri had a player with more than 650 yards receiving last season.
Tennessee has the elements to improve its passing game with wide receivers Preston Williams and Josh Malone, who has been sidelined this spring by an unspecified injury.
Williams wasn’t declared eligible last year until late August, which limited his production as a freshman. Receiver Jauan Jennings didn’t move over from quarterback until last summer. Now both players have had time to develop.
Jason Croom has returned from a knee injury that prevented him from playing last year, and has switched from receiver to tight end. Croom, 6-foot-5 and 246 pounds, is better suited to play tight end and adds depth to that position.
So the pieces are in place. Now the Vols have to put them together and prevent defenses from focusing entirely on their potent rushing attack.
“If we do that — if we match up the run game and passing game — I think the sky’s the limit for this team,” Smith said.
Development
No more new bowls: The NCAA is prohibiting the creation of new bowl games for the next three years after three teams with 5-7 records were needed to fill the record number of bowls last season.
The NCAA’s football oversight committee last week recommended a three-year moratorium on sanctioning new postseason games, and it was approved by the Division 1 Council. The oversight committee started a task force to study the Bowl Subdivision postseason after there were not enough six-win, bowl-eligible teams last season to fill the 40 games.
The committee will deliver a full set of recommendations on reforming the postseason in June.