Mike DeBord 'not surprised' by Tennessee's explosion on offense

Missouri linebacker Joey Burkett tackles Tennessee runningback Alvin Kamara during the Vols' home football game against the Missouri Tigers at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee won their final home game of the season 63-37.
Missouri linebacker Joey Burkett tackles Tennessee runningback Alvin Kamara during the Vols' home football game against the Missouri Tigers at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee won their final home game of the season 63-37.
photo Players pile onto Tennessee runningback John Kelly (4) after a touchdown during the Vols' home football game against the Missouri Tigers at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Tennessee won their final home game of the season 63-37.

KNOXVILLE - Tennessee offensive coordinator Mike DeBord hasn't flashed any incredulous looks at coordinator counterpart Bob Shoop in the Neyland Stadium coaching booth the past two games.

He instead kept working to make sure his offense bailed out the other side of the ball in a pair of high-scoring wins.

The Volunteers erupted for 112 points and 1,208 yards against Kentucky and Missouri thanks to a rejuvenated rushing attack and 21 plays of 20 or more yards.

"He's doing his job and he's got to focus on that," DeBord said of his in-booth interactions with Shoop. "Then when we have the ball, I'm doing my deal. We really don't talk too much during the game. Occaisonally I'll tap him and say, 'Hey, great job,' or he'll tap me and say great job.

"You just don't have a lot of time to talk to another coach on the other side of the ball, because we're putting together the next series and talking about that as offensive coaches, and I know he's doing the same thing defensively when the other team doesn't have the ball."

In both games it felt like Tennessee had to score on every possession to win with its defense struggling to generate stops, and the Vols employed aggressive game plans as a result. Josh Malone caught a 51-yard touchdown pass on a flea flicker against Kentucky, and freshman receiver Tyler Byrd's 22-yard run on a reverse set up a short touchdown run.

Tennessee took downfield shots and called for eight passing plays on first down against Missouri, and quarterback Josh Dobbs completed all eight passes for 151 yards.

In both games the Vols used a wildcat package with receiver Jauan Jennings and used Dobbs in the ground game.

DeBord said he doesn't mind calling plays in shootouts.

"I don't feel pressure that way at all," he said. "Every time you want to score. Every time I'm calling a series, I want to score. I'll never forget, I was working for another coach, and I'll never forget one time he'd say, 'Hey, we need to score on this drive.' I was thinking I want to score every drive; I'm not just trying to score on this drive.

"I do not feel the pressure like that at all. I feel the pressure every time we get the ball to want to score in every game that I've ever called. I want to go score, but I don't feel the pressure that way."

Tennessee averaged 35.2 points per game in its first season with DeBord as coordinator in 2015, and the Vols are second in the SEC in scoring (36.5 points per game) behind Alabama entering the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt on Saturday night.

In SEC games Tennessee is averaging 458.1 yards per game, the second-highest mark in the league.

During the first half of the season, the Vols often were underwhelming and mistake-prone on offense and were downright anemic in losses to Alabama and South Carolina, but the offense clicked into high gear in November.

The secret to the surge, according to DeBord, is simply better execution.

"I'm not surprised at us scoring points," he said. "If you look back through the season, we talked about one thing: We were stopping ourselves at times. Right now we had no turnovers in this game and we had three penalties. When you're not beating yourself, you've always got a great chance of moving the ball."

The inconsistency and struggles of the offense brought warranted criticism of DeBord and head coach Butch Jones's offensive scheme, but the murmuring has quieted the past few weeks.

"Criticism, I don't pay any attention to it," DeBord said. "I don't listen to it. In fact, I've got a new way on my phone where I don't even have to see people that are trying to get to me on Twitter. I don't have to see it. It's perfect. I love it. One of our coaches showed me how to do that.

"Criticism is part of this coaching world. I don't get involved with that and I don't pay any attention to it, because my focus is all on my job and helping the players and things like that. I don't go that way."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.

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