Although it’s just a 60-minute sample size, Tennessee is off to a different defensive college football season statistically.
The Volunteers ranked among the nation’s top-10 teams in tackles for loss a year ago with 7.85 per game and collected just two in last Thursday night’s 59-10 thumping of Ball State inside Neyland Stadium. Yet Tennessee was dreadful in third-down situations last season and quickly surrendered two to the Cardinals before allowing a stingy 3-of-12 rate the rest of the way.
“I thought for the most part that we showed some flashes in terms of what we want to be and what we’re capable of being,” Vols second-year defensive coordinator Tim Banks said Tuesday in a news conference. “Their guy did a good job of getting rid of the ball quickly, and when he held it, I thought we applied some pressure.
“Was it perfect? Absolutely not, but I thought for the most part that these guys did a good job executing what we asked them to execute.”
The bottom line defensively from Tennessee’s opener is that the Vols blanked Ball State until the midway mark of the third quarter, when they had built a 45-0 lead. The bottom line this week is that Ball State is history and now the Vols must face reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champion Pittsburgh on its home turf Saturday.
Pittsburgh also opened last Thursday, with the new-look Panthers rallying past West Virginia 38-31 in a riveting “Backyard Brawl.” The Panthers remained No. 17 in Tuesday’s latest Associated Press poll, while the Vols moved into the rankings at No. 24.
“The structure of what they do offensively is a little bit different,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “They played with an extra tackle at times last week and with some 12-personnel (lining up with one running back, two tight ends and two receivers) as well, running the football, and then their play-action shots came off of that. In recent years with the quarterback (Kenny Pickett) they had, they were a little bit more spread and were pitching it around a little bit more. The tempo of the ball game will be a bit different.
“We have to do a great job of being physical with our front seven in particular, but really the entire defensive unit. You have to maintain gap integrity and have your eyes in the right place too, because play-action is going to come off of it, and you cannot give them any chunk plays.”
Also different for the Panthers is quarterback Kedon Slovis, a 6-foot-3, 215-pounder from Scottsdale, Arizona, who spent the past three seasons starting at Southern California before transferring. Slovis completed 652 of 953 (68.4%) passes in his career with the Trojans for 7,576 yards with 58 touchdowns and 24 interceptions, earning freshman All-America honors in 2019 and all-Pac-12 honors in 2020.
Against West Virginia, Slovis was 16-of-24 for 308 yards and a touchdown. He also had a 14-yard run, but was also sacked five times.
“As much as anything, they have the ability to be different than what they’ve shown on tape,” Heupel said. “I thought he played pretty efficient throughout the course of the evening. For us, we have to be able to adjust to what we see, communicate on the sidelines, and communicate those things out on the football field when we see them.
“We have to be disciplined. We’ve got to do a great job in the run game. We’ve got to smash it.”
Praising Milton
Vols quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle didn’t hold back Tuesday in his praise for backup Joe Milton III, who completed 8 of 9 attempts for 113 yards and a touchdown vs. Ball State.
“I hate to use the word flawless, but he played at an extremely high level out there,” Halzle said. “It gave us a bunch of confidence.”
Milton was plagued by overthrows early last season and had a couple early against the Cardinals, though one was negated by a defensive penalty.
“It was just a couple of mechanical things,” Halzle said. “His base got wide, and he caught his toe cleat a couple of times and sailed it. That usually stems from the first game of the season and maybe trying to play a little too fast.”
Charles in charge?
Although sophomore defensive back Christian Charles was lauded in the spring for successfully making the transition from safety to cornerback, which had been depleted by injuries, last Thursday marked his first game in his new role.
Charles started and shared team-high tackling honors with opposite corner Warren Burrell and inside linebacker Aaron Beasley.
“That was really his first time out on an island,” Banks said. “Once the game started to settle down, he started to settle down, and I thought he started to play better. He’s a tremendous athlete, as we’ve already documented, but obviously playing corner is new for him.
“By the end of the game, I thought he was really comfortable in what we were asking him to do.”
Odds and ends
The only Tennessee quarterback with a longer streak than Hendon Hooker’s 13 straight games with at least one touchdown pass is Heath Shuler, who had 18 during the 1992-93 seasons. … The Vols will be on ABC this weekend for the first time since 2016, when they downed Virginia Tech 45-24 in the “Battle of Bristol.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.