KNOXVILLE - Tennessee finished the 2017 football season 117th of 129 teams in the country in total offense as injuries decimated the line and then-head coach Butch Jones remained loyal to the read-option spread approach he maintained throughout his five-year tenure.
Early indications as Tennessee begins preseason practice Friday with a new coaching staff are that these Volunteers will be much more flexible.
"One thing I like about our offense is we can get under center, we can run the ball, we can spread you out, we can get in your gut, we can throw the ball," first-year offensive coordinator Tyson Helton said Thursday. "At the end of the day, it's not about the offense, it's about the players."
Helton has never coached a game with Vols head coach Jeremy Pruitt before, but eight months of working with Pruitt have given him enough insight to reject one school of thought about the former Georgia, Florida State and Alabama defensive coordinator.
"I think sometimes people say, 'Well, a defensive coach wants you to go run the football, bleed the clock and go win 10-3,'" Helton said. "That's not his style."
Pruitt's approach to offense - simple as it sounds - is to do what puts the team in the best position to win the game, Helton explained.
That's why on Thursday, as Tyson talked to Knoxville media for the first time since his hiring, he described Tennessee's new offense as "multiple," a system capable of molding to its players' strengths and morphing based on the looks opposing defenses show and the situation of a given game.
"Every team is different and every game takes on its own environment, so we want to win every game," Helton said. "Is that scoring a bunch of points? It might be. Or if that's managing the clock and making sure we do whatever it takes to go win, then it's that."
Helton's preparation to be a Southeastern Conference offensive coordinator included learning under pass-heavy coaches June Jones at Hawaii and Jeff Brohm at Western Kentucky. Most recently, he was passing game coordinator at Southern California, where he worked closely with offensive coordinator and former Tennessee player Tee Martin, who quarterbacked the Vols to a national championship.
"I thought Coach Tee Martin did a tremendous job over the last two years of being the offensive coordinator there, calling the plays and those things," said Helton, who was involved in situational play-calling for the Trojans.
When Pruitt was the defensive coordinator at Hoover High School in Alabama in 2005 and 2006, Helton was an assistant at Memphis and visited Hoover on recruiting trips. They developed a bond that persisted as both progressed through the coaching ranks.
"Very similar philosophies about the type of football team we want to have and how we want to win football games," Helton said. "Just that relationship. So when he finally got his opportunity to be a head football coach, I jumped at that opportunity (to be offensive coordinator) because I knew he would do it the right way and the staff he was going to put together was going to be tremendous. So it's a blessing to be a part of his staff."
Helton and Pruitt are still getting a feel for their Tennessee personnel. Stars such as sophomore offensive lineman Trey Smith and redshirt junior receiver Jauan Jennings did not participate in spring practices, and two of the four quarterbacks competing for the starting job had not arrived at that time.
Now, with 25 practices to go until the season opener against West Virginia on Sept. 1, Helton will resume the task of teaching an offense that will evolve as he becomes more familiar with the players who will execute it.
"It's not the plays, it's the players," Helton said. "And you have to teach the players, 'This is what's important about the game.' Taking care of the football, knowing the situations that you're in, putting yourself in a position to go win the game in the fourth quarter. That's what good football teams do. It's our job as football coaches to go put our players in position to do those things.
"To answer the question 'What is the offense?' The offense is whatever we need to do to go win the game. We will be multiple. We will be under center, we will be in the (shot)gun. We'll do things to put our players in position to go win."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.