KNOXVILLE – It could wind up being the most important timeout of Tennessee’s season.
The Volunteers made some key adjustments prior to their game-winning Hail Mary touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings against Georgia last week, and it gave ninth-ranked Tennessee control of the SEC East Division heading into a tough two-game swing at eighth-ranked Texas A&M and against top-ranked Alabama. All three teams are 5-0.
Vols head coach Butch Jones credited wide receivers coach Zach Azzanni after the game and earlier this week for switching the lineup during the timeout prior to the final play.
“We got a look at the defense and saw who they had and where they had them and decided to move some guys around,” Azzanni said Wednesday, “and get some speed on the backside with (Josh) Malone and get more of a jumper in Jennings at the point and had Josh Smith and (Jason) Croom where we needed them.”
Prior to the timeout, Malone, tight end Ethan Wolf and Smith lined up on the left side with Jennings alone on the right. After the timeout, Malone and Jennings flipped positions, and Croom replaced Wolf between Jennings and Smith. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Croom provided a big frame that shielded a couple Georgia defenders from making a play on the ball.
It was almost like a pick in a basketball game, and Jennings used it to go up and grab the ball.
“We inserted him to get a little more speed down there,” Azzanni said. “Him and Ethan are both very big and both very capable. We just needed some speed down there at the edge.
“Sometimes when you’re going and you have that play called and you’re not able to have a timeout or able to have time to talk about it you’ve just got to go with the personnel on the field in the formations that you have. That’s how we practice it. We also, when we have a timeout, are able to move the pieces around where we need them. Thank God we had a couple left. Coach (Jones) called a timeout and we were able to do what we need to do and get the right pieces in there.”
Vols offensive coordinator Mike DeBord – who was Michigan’s offensive line coach in 1994 when Colorado’s Kordell Stewart memorably tossed a Hail Mary to beat the Wolverines – said Tennessee considered two different end-of-game plays, and Jones wanted to throw the Hail Mary. DeBord said Azzanni did an “exceptional” job getting the lineup correct.
“I was like, ‘He caught it, he caught it,'” DeBord said of his reaction in the coaching booth. “Obviously I was very excited. (Tight ends) Coach (Larry) Scott was tackling me from the back as I stood up. I didn’t know who was tackling me or whatever, and I was just hoping he didn’t take me to the ground.”
The general thinking on Hail Mary passes is a team just loads one side with receivers, throws it up and hopes, but there’s more to it. Georgia’s three-man rush had no chance of bothering quarterback Josh Dobbs, and Malone took up two more defenders. In the end zone the Bulldogs still had six defenders to Tennessee’s three receivers.
Smith was in position for any tipped ball, and Azzanni said Croom was the “jumper” whose job was to go up and get the ball, though he and Jennings swapped responsibilities when they crossed paths.
“I don’t know if it mattered,” Azzanni said. “I think Jauan was going to try to go and catch that ball regardless of how it was drawn on paper and how we talked about it. He was going to go get that thing.”
Even if players were in the correct positions, the play would not have happened unless Jennings, the 6-foot-3 former high school basketball state tournament MVP, had not gone up more aggressively than any defender to snatch the ball.
“The crazy thing is, when we were in the huddle, there was just a calm atmosphere, like we knew – it was weird,” said guard Jack Jones, who played against Jennings in high school and watched him play basketball in Murfreesboro.
“I’ve been a part of Hail Mary throws before in high school and stuff, and I’ve never been as confident as I was, especially with Jauan out there. I could just tell the look in his eye, this dude’s going to make a play. That’s just how he is.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.