KNOXVILLE — It was a picturesque April afternoon at Neyland Stadium on Saturday.
Butch Jones could not say the same about Tennessee’s offense, though.
Aside from a moment or two of individual brilliance, the Volunteers struggled offensively through some early situational work, and based on the review from Jones and some of the players, it didn’t get much better during Saturday’s two-hour practice, leaving the third-year head coach to lament dropped passes and poor execution.
“I did not like our offense’s approach,” Jones said. “I thought we were stale. I thought we had no mental effort. I thought we had no intensity about ourselves, and I think it showed.
“We started off putting them in some demanding situations.”
Those scenarios included putting the offense in the shadow of its own goalposts and three sets of overtime situations with the game tied and with the offense down by three and down by eight.
The only time the first-team offense picked up a first down from its own 1- and 2-yard line was when cornerback Malik Foreman was flagged for pass interference against receiver Josh Smith.
Von Pearson couldn’t come down with a catchable ball during that set of situational work, and drops from tight end Ethan Wolf and receiver Pig Howard, along with a holding penalty from right tackle Brett Kendrick, derailed the starting unit’s efforts during the overtime simulations.
Quarterback Josh Dobbs, who had a nice touchdown run during one of the overtime periods, dismissed the notion that the passing game was sloppy and insisted the offense took a step forward, but there was a tone of frustration in his voice.
“Drops happen,” he said. “That’s a part of the game. Our receivers know, and we talk about it all the time, the snap-and-clear mentality.
“We talk about having mental toughness all the time, so if you have adversity in a game, if you have a couple drops in the game, you have to be able to snap and clear and catch the next one. We’re going to continue to grow in that.”
The struggles did provide Dobbs a chance to put his leadership skills into action.
“He came up to me and said, ‘We can’t have that, but just shake it off,'” Wolf said. “He’s not going to tell you anything you don’t know. He’s not going to get in your face, because obviously you know you’re supposed to catch the ball. He makes sure you know that he cares and that he’s not going to tolerate it as well.
“It’s just positive encouragement, basically, is what Dobbs does.”
Of course, the current version of the offense is a shorthanded version of the one the Vols will have when the season arrives, particularly at running back, where a pair of walk-ons are carrying most of the load.
Alvin Kamara (thigh bruise) again sat out, though Jones said he could have played if it was September instead of April, as Tennessee takes the cautious route with the dynamic running back.
The Vols are limiting Jalen Hurd’s workload, but he had a big-time touchdown run in which he burst through the line, bounced to the outside and sped untouched into the end zone, during one of the overtime scenarios.
At receiver, Tennessee is without Marquez North, Jason Croom and now Cody Blanc, who’s out for the rest of the spring with broken ribs.
“You take Jalen Hurd out of your offense and you take Alvin Kamara out of your offense, you’re a little bit different football team,” Jones said. “We’re banged up a little bit at wide receiver. Alton Howard has some bruised ribs, so he was in green today, and I thought he let that affect him. Normally he’s been a very, very consistent performer for us.”
Thursday, defensive coordinator John Jancek lamented the mental mistakes, missed tackles and the 11 explosive plays his unit allowed last Saturday, and that was a focus for the Vols this week.
It wasn’t the only one, though.
“We were just tired of the offensive coaches talking smack,” linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. “It was a lot of energy today. No one was flat. Everyone came out ready to make plays. The offense kind of got us last time, but we knew we wanted to come out here and just whup them. We kind of got them a little bit.”
The offense’s performance seemed more like a bad day at the office than due to any major lingering problems. Wolf called the drops “unusual.” Jones noted the offensive line didn’t play as well as it had been.
“We’ve been pretty good offensively throughout the course of spring,” the coach said. “But today I thought the defense had much more intensity. They had more leadership, I thought, in this type of environment.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.