Mark WiedmerKNOXVILLE - Somewhere in the great beyond, Gen. Robert Neyland is no doubt shaking his head in disgust, grimacing mightily as if he's just been forced to swallow castor oil.
This can't be true, can it? Mediocre Kentucky just gained 443 rushing yards on the same University of Tennessee football program that the legendary Neyland, the coach for whom the Volunteers' voluminous stadium is named, once made synonymous with debilitating defense?
Four-hundred-forty-three yards? On the ground? Has current coach Butch Jones brought back 2012 defensive disaster Sal Sunseri - remember the Sal Sieve giving up 721 yards to Troy? - to secretly advise first-year defensive coordinator Bob Shoop? Has the world gone mad far beyond politics?
Oh, sure, the Vols won 49-36. It's Kentucky, which means Big Bloo Hoo when it comes to facing the Big Orange on any football field anywhere, anytime. The Mildcats have now lost 31 of their past 32 games against Tennessee. If they keep playing defense the way they have the past three years - giving up an average of 50 points per game - they may lose 131 of 132.
Yet having said that - having wondered how a team that may represent the SEC East in the Southeastern Conference title game on Dec. 3 can basically ignore at least half of its defensive responsibilities until it matters most (the Wildcats scored just two touchdowns on six trips inside the red zone) - Tennessee won.
With relative ease. With overwhelming confidence.
If these Vols may never play the kind of total game we expected them to play every game at the start of this season, they at least look like an offense that might be difficult for anyone - even Alabama - to overwhelm in the SEC title game.
"We have a lot of momentum right now," Jones said of an offense that has scored 104 points in its past two games and seems to be having both more fun and more success in the two games since running back Jalen Hurd left the team. "We've got a lot of things we need to improve on, but I'm proud of our guys' resiliency. We've got great balance (on offense)."
No one looked more balanced offensively than senior quarterback Josh Dobbs, who rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns, passed for 223 yards and three scores and earned a brief postgame visit on the field from Kentucky coach Mark Stoops, who reportedly told him, "I'm glad we don't have to play you again."
Indeed, over the past three seasons against the Cats, including a 50-16 home win in 2014 and a 52-21 road victory last season, Dobbs has totaled 13 touchdowns: eight by air and five by land.
"We just knew we needed to run him," Jones said. "There's a lot of times that we put a lot of things on his shoulders in terms of three or four plays at once that he has to make a decision of which play to go to, whether it's running pass options or to just check with me. He had a great command of the line of scrimmage and a great command performance."
It must also be noted that however much the rushing defense was awful, the rushing offense was awesome, led by Dobbs' 147 yards, Alvin Kamara's 128 and John Kelly's 94. Those performances led to a Vols average of 9.2 yards per carry and allowed them to face but five third downs on offense all day, which might have been a good thing considering they converted but one of those.
But the Vols also converted a victory opportunity against the best remaining team on their schedule, given that Kentucky has beaten Missouri and Vanderbilt, the two remaining SEC East opponents for Tennessee.
"I'm just happy for this team," Jones said. "We're in a two-game playoff. It's a week-to-week season, and we have to be ready for Missouri coming in here."
Before that happens, they might want to get a bit more ready to stop the run, though neither Mizzou nor Vandy has Kentucky's running back talent.
What Tennessee once had was a lot of talent that has spent most of this season injured. But captains Cam Sutton and Kamara got back on the field on Saturday, and unsung Stephen Griffin, filling in for a newly injured Todd Kelly Jr., forced a key fumble in the red zone and accounted for four tackles.
"Tennessee is a talented football team," Stoops said after the Vols' 599 total offensive yards proved more than enough to overwhelm the Wildcats' 635 on the scoreboard. "They are banged up, but so are we. They came in preseason top 10 for a reason. They're a big, physical team."
And as Saturday proved, when they get at least a portion of that talent back on the field, they can still put up top-10 offensive numbers. Because of that, should Florida lose at LSU next Saturday, the Vols should overcome Missouri and Vanderbilt to win the SEC East for the first time since 2007.
As for defense, the Big Orange might need to consider channeling their inner Neyland or at least exorcising the ghost of Sunseri.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.