University of Tennessee’s foe is extra stingy

KNOXVILLE — It’s hard to score points when your offense isn’t on the field.

The University of Tennessee is 107th out of 119 major NCAA Division I programs with 27 minutes, 12 seconds of average possession per game. Mississippi State, Saturday night’s opponent, is 37th at 31:22.

The Bulldogs held the ball for more than 36 minutes in their upset victory over previously unbeaten Vanderbilt last Saturday, while the Vols barely had 17 minutes of possession in a loss at Georgia.

Vanderbilt had 107 yards of total offense against Mississippi State, converting one third down in 10 chances.

“Are you trying to make me feel better?” first-year UT offensive coordinator Dave Clawson said when asked about those stats.

The Bulldogs (2-4, 1-2 SEC) are as offensively challenged as Tennessee (2-4, 0-3). But unlike the Vols, their defense consistently gets off the field.

Mississippi State is 10th nationally in allowing third-down conversions, with a 29.1 percent rate. Incidentally, Tennessee’s foe next week, Alabama, is seventh at 28.4 percent.

The Bulldogs are tied for second in the country with just 65 pass completions allowed this season. They stack the box every Saturday — which everyone does to the Vols these days — and play press, one-on-one coverage in the secondary.

“Last year, they might have been the most physical team we played,” UT head coach Phillip Fulmer said. “We’re expecting the same kind of football game this year.”

Austin Rogers is fortunate to remember last season’s slugfest in Starkville. A helmet-to-helmet hit from safety De’Mon Glanton left the Vols receiver addled on the ground for several moments. Trainers and teammates helped him to his feet, and he came back in the game after receiving two stitches.

“When I regained my breath, I realized I had a hole in my lip,” Rogers said three days after the hit. “That was a tough game. But we won, so it was a good tough game.”

The Vols converted just 5 of 15 third downs in Starkville last season, but they held the ball for nearly 10 minutes in the fourth quarter to preserve a 33-21 victory. They stopped MSU’s last seven chances on third or fourth down, too.

“We came out of that game sore,” UT receiver Josh Briscoe said. “But they came out sore too, because we played a very physical game also.”

UT’s offense hasn’t been on the field long enough to develop much soreness the past few weeks. The Vols have ran fewer plays than their opponents for three consecutive games — 67-57 at Auburn, 60-50 against Northern Illinois and 81-45 at Georgia.

The Vols are 89th nationally in third-down defense, allowing conversions at a 42.1 percent clip.

Defensive coordinator John Chavis has gotten a tad testy with reporters questioning the third-down problems, specifically why his secondary so often seems to play so far from the line of scrimmage — or “soft,” some say.

“First of all, I’d like for someone to give me a definition — in terms of what ‘too soft’ means,” Chavis said. “I need to understand what ‘too soft’ means, exactly. I don’t think we play soft. There were times in the Georgia game that our corners did line a little deeper than we wanted them to. There were times in the run that we had a corner or two bail when they were supposed to be playing a different technique.

“But I wouldn’t classify what we’re doing in the secondary as ‘soft.’”

Chavis defines third-and-short as 2 or fewer yards, third-and-long as 6 yards or more, and third-and-medium as the distance in between. He said his defense has stopped 75 percent of third-and-longs this season — more than 79 percent before the Georgia game, but just 50 percent in Athens.

“What’s killing us is third-and-short,” said Chavis, whose unit has one stop in 14 such tries. “That’s what killing us, and what’s keeping us on the field.”

And it’s part of why UT is struggling to avoid a second losing season in four years.