ATHENS, Ga. – When first-year Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt was in his first season as Alabama’s defensive coordinator in 2016, the Crimson Tide set a program record with 15 nonoffensive touchdowns.
Had Alabama never scored on offense that year against Southern California, Kentucky and Tennessee, the Tide’s defense and special teams still would have provided enough points for victories in those games.
“If you’re the one creating them, it gives the offense a boost and the team a boost,” Pruitt said this week. “You don’t really plan for those before you go into the game.”
Pruitt will take his rebuilding Volunteers into Sanford Stadium on Saturday afternoon to face No. 2 Georgia, where he will encounter a program that has become quite adept at producing nonoffensive scores as well.
The Bulldogs are averaging one nonoffensive touchdown per game through their 4-0 start, having tallied two during last Saturday’s 43-29 win at Missouri. The first touchdown last weekend was scored by freshman cornerback Tyson Campbell on a 64-yard fumble return within the game’s first six minutes, and redshirt freshman corner Eric Stokes collected his first collegiate score as well by blocking a second-quarter punt and returning it 8 yards to the end zone.
Georgia set the tone during its 41-17 win at South Carolina on Sept. 8, when senior corner Deandre Baker intercepted Jake Bentley and raced 55 yards to the 1-yard line. Baker dropped the ball before the goal line, but senior insider linebacker Juwan Taylor scooped it up for the score.
“There is some stat where it’s like 89 percent of the teams that have a nonoffensive touchdown usually win the game,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “Those are very impactful. It’s hard to overcome those emotionally because they’re sometimes in shock, but at the end of the day they happen. They happen on special teams, they happen on defense, and whether they happen to you or for you, it’s the next play that matters.
“It’s not that play, so a lot of it is overcoming adversity and how you’re built within your program to overcome things like that.”
The impact of Georgia’s nonoffensive scores last Saturday was reflected in the fact the offense didn’t score during the first half, yet the Bulldogs took a 20-7 lead into the locker room. In the second half, the Bulldogs awoke to amass 297 of their 445 yards, with sophomore quarterback Jake Fromm throwing for touchdowns of 33 yards to Riley Ridley, 61 yards to Jeremiah Holloman and 54 yards to Mecole Hardman.
Nonoffensive scores, according to Fromm, are an offense’s best friend.
“They’re just a testament to the program we have,” Fromm said. “The cumulative work we did in fall camp just pays off for us, and it definitely helps the offense, especially when we’re not playing our best. It’s awesome to see and super helpful for us.”
They’re also quite pleasing to those who produce them, with Taylor saying, “A defensive score is everything to a defense.”
Hardman broke free for a 70-yard punt return for a score during the 49-7 rout of Middle Tennessee on Sept. 15, so Georgia’s nonoffensive touchdowns have been tallied via interception return, punt return, fumble return and blocked punt return.
Georgia has yet to surrender a nonoffensive touchdown and did not allow one last season until Oklahoma’s Steven Parker returned a Sony Michel fumble 46 yards for a touchdown midway through the fourth quarter of the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.
Tennessee has yet to allow a nonoffensive touchdown through its 2-2 start that includes 26-point losses to West Virginia and Florida, but the Vols are coming off a 47-21 defeat against the Gators in which they turned the ball over six times. That enabled Florida to produce touchdown drives of just 22, 7 and 19 yards, and the Gators also had a second-quarter safety.
“You’ve got to take care of the football, which we obviously didn’t do this past week,” Pruitt said. “Whether they score or not, you don’t want to give a good football team extra opportunities.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.