KNOXVILLE – Despite the less-than-stellar results to start the season, there have been some positive takeaways for Tennessee through four games.
None of those may be more evident than on the offensive line, the team’s biggest weakness last year.
It hasn’t hurt that the entire position group from last season has been replaced by bigger, stronger players. It hasn’t hurt that the Volunteers coaches recruited four quality offensive linemen, two of whom are starting as true freshmen. It hasn’t hurt that two linemen who had to miss time for medical reasons are back and in the starting lineup.
But clearly, the line is taking steps forward as a group.
“This offensive line goes to work every week, rolls up our sleeves and, like Coach (Will) Friend says, sets the tone every game,” junior left guard Trey Smith said last week. “Every week we’ve got to go in, do our job at a high level – compete, compete, compete and do it again.”
Smith missed the final five games of the 2018 season due to the recurrence of blood clots in his lungs. Center Brandon Kennedy played only in the season opener a year ago, tearing his ACL during practice the next week. Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright were high school seniors a year ago.
That quartet, along with sophomore right tackle K’Rojhn Calbert, have played together the past two games. The results have been mixed – the Vols rushed for nearly 200 yards against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga but largely struggled in that aspect a week later at Florida – but head coach Jeremy Pruitt has noted that he’s seen improvements in those players, as well as junior Riley Locklear and freshmen Chris Akporoghene and Jackson Lampley.
There are still some struggles running the ball, but Tennessee quarterbacks have had a little more time to pass and at times the offense has been able to move the ball down the field.
“I think our guys (in the line) have really done a nice job,” Pruitt said. “Could we improve? Sure we could. We need to be a little bit firmer inside. We probably need to be more consistent outside. But we haven’t had to keep a bunch of guys inside to chip or use seven-man protections. We’ve done that some, but our guys have worked hard in continuing to improve there, and to me it shows up on Saturdays.”
Smith said the key to continuing improvement comes from the effort the team puts in during the week. Having already overcome plenty, he’s not one to dwell too much on what hasn’t happened, but rather he is focused on doing what he can to help the offensive line improve heading into Saturday’s 7 p.m. clash against third-ranked Georgia at Neyland Stadium.
The Bulldogs (4-0, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) lead the league and are fifth in the country in rushing yards allowed at 57.0 per game. Georgia opponents average only 2.3 yards per carry, but Smith says the Vols will be up to the challenge.
“It’s a season of hardship, but at the end of the day that’s life,” he said. “Life is going to hit you hard, but you’ve got to get back up because you can’t let life dictate what happens the rest of your future. At the end of the day, we’re still 0-0, so I don’t think about the schedule.
“I think about whose tail I’m going to beat the next game. I don’t really look at the scoreboard; I just look at how we play, how we compete and how we finish. We’ve always been making improvements – it’s just finally coming together – but I have a lot of trust in this group, and as brothers we go to work with each other and we have each other’s back on the field.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.