KNOXVILLE – During the first half of the season Tennessee had a feast-or-famine offense.
In the first seven games it always seemed like the Volunteers either were going up and down the field and putting up points in bunches or shooting themselves in the feet with turnovers, dropped passes, penalties, sacks and more mistakes.
After a miserable performance on offense against Alabama, 18th-ranked Tennessee had an extra week to review what’s worked, what hasn’t and what needs to change for the final stretch of the season, which begins tonight at South Carolina.
“We went back and looked at tendencies by formations, and we’ve got to correct some of those things tendency-wise, which we’re going to do,” offensive coordinator Mike DeBord said. “I think the biggest thing is that when we have our guys and we’re going, if we execute, we’re hard to defend. We’ve really concentrated this week just on the execution part.
“Catching the ball and not dropping balls, not fumbling the ball, chinning the football and taking care of it that way – we’ve really worked on the execution part of it, and I feel like when we play fast, that’s an added tool for us, because of the wear-down factor. We’ve done that in the second half. You’ve seen us have stronger second halves.”