Tennessee had piled up 37 points and nearly 300 yards of offense against Kent State by the time the first quarter mercifully came to an end last Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.
It turned out that mercy for the Golden Flashes was still quite a ways away.
The Volunteers pushed their lead to 65-0, and that gaudy yardage total over 500, by the time the teams trudged to the locker rooms at halftime. Only then did Tennessee finally pull back on the reins of fourth-year head coach Josh Heupel’s high-powered offense, content to kick just a couple of field goals in the second half and move on to bigger games against better opponents.
Here is the scary thing for all of them, beginning with No. 15 Oklahoma this weekend to open Southeastern Conference play: The Vols, who moved up one spot to No. 6 in this week’s AP Top 25, didn’t even play that well.
At least that was the assessment of Tennessee starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, who threw for 173 yards and a touchdown before his day was done early.
“I think there’s still room for improvement,” the redshirt freshman insisted. “I think that’s every day what we’re working for, it’s to get 1% better. Anything that we can do to get our offense (going), whether that’s a tempo or being set, no presnap penalties, everything that goes into play, yeah, there is still a lot of room for improvement.”
Maybe he sees what a lot of people are seeing already this season: It’s going to take points to win in the SEC.
Fifth-ranked Ole Miss leads the nation in total offense with an average of 692 yards per game, thanks primarily to the nation’s No. 1 passing game (434.3 yards per game). The Vols are right behind the Rebels in total offense at 639.3 yards, an average that could have been much bigger had the Vols not backed off in a 69-3 opening blowout of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, a 51-10 rout of North Carolina State a week later in Charlotte, and then the win over Kent State.
Tennessee still leads the nation in scoring at 63.7 points per game, with Ole Miss second at 56.0 and multiple other SEC programs not too far behind. The SEC has four of the top 10 attacks nationally in total offense and five of the top 11 in scoring offense, a lineup that includes Big 12-turned-SEC heavyweight Texas, this week’s new No. 1 in the AP Top 25.
It makes some sense that the Longhorns would be putting up points, given their background in the Big 12, where Texas Tech’s Air Raid offense under coach Mike Leach more than a decade ago helped turn the conference into one in which defense often seemed something of an afterthought.
The SEC has long had a reputation as the home of stout defenses, despite outliers such as the Florida teams coached by Steve Spurrier and the Tennessee teams quarterbacked by Peyton Manning. That so many of the league’s teams are scoring at such a high rate this season is starting to raise some eyebrows.
Kent State coach Kenni Burns’ assessment after seeing the Vols up close: “They have weapons all over the place.”
AP photo by Chuck Burton / Wake forest defensive back Rushaun Tongue is unable to keep Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart from plunging into the end zone for a touchdown during last Saturday’s game in Winston-Salem, N.C.Ole Miss scored on its first five possessions last week against Atlantic Coast Conference member Wake Forest, and its 96-yard touchdown drive during the 40-6 rout was the fourth time the Rebels have driven at least 90 yards for a touchdown this season. That followed a 76-point thrashing of Furman and a 49-point win over Middle Tennessee State University, which appeared in a bowl game just two years ago.
SEC teams are piling up yards in different ways, too. Whereas Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart has shredded defenses with his arm, Arkansas has piled up points on the ground, scoring multiple rushing touchdowns in each of its games this season.
And just like Tennessee, the Rebels and Razorbacks think they are far from polished in the season’s first month.
“There’s a lot of positives to know that you can have a 34-point road win against an ACC team and not play up to our standards and leave a lot of points out there,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said. “Like I told them, it’s a good and bad thing. It depends what you make of it. It’s really good if you change those things, take care of the ball and make better decisions.”
Of course, some of these gaudy offensive numbers for SEC teams are inflated early in the season, the byproduct of nonconference schedules with some soft spots even as the league has taken on its share of tough tests in the first few weeks. Tennessee’s scoring average almost certainly will take a hit when it visits Oklahoma on Saturday, and Georgia and Kentucky just showed they still play defense in the Bulldogs’ 13-12 road win last weekend in Lexington.
Still, it’s a safe bet it’s going to take a lot more than 13 points to keep winning in the SEC this season.