KNOXVILLE - Tennessee's offense carried the team last week on the shoulders of a passing game that received national acclaim and masked an increasingly problematic deficiency.
The Volunteers' running game remains missing in action.
Tennessee averaged just 1.9 yards per rush in its 30-24 upset of Auburn, continuing an unflattering trend that is at risk of being prolonged this weekend.
Top-ranked Alabama (7-0, 4-0 Southeastern Conference) is coming to Neyland Stadium for a 3:30 p.m. game Saturday against the Vols (3-3, 1-2). The Crimson Tide are bringing college football's top offense and a defense that is stingy, though perhaps not as utterly dominant as previous iterations.
"We're not going to beat many teams if we can't run the football," first-year Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt said. "You've got to be able to run the football in this league if you want to have success."
The Vols have experienced diminishing returns on the ground against Power Five conference opponents since averaging 3.4 yards per carry in a season-opening 40-14 loss to West Virginia. Tennessee averaged 2.9 yards per carry against Florida, 2.6 against Georgia and hit a new season low at Auburn by dropping to fewer than 2 yards per carry.
Tennessee running back Tim Jordan heads for the sideline as Auburn linebacker Darrell Williams tries to wrap up during last Saturday's game at Auburn. The Vols averaged 1.9 rushing yards per carry against the Tigers but won the game 30-24."There was a lot of runs out there that we didn't execute very well," Pruitt said. "There's some runs that Auburn whipped us up front and there's some runs that we didn't block the right guys, so we've got to do a better job. We've got to make the other team beat us every snap, and we didn't do that every snap on Saturday."
The primary culprit for Tennessee's rushing struggles is an offensive line that remains in flux. After four straight games with the same starting five, redshirt sophomore Nathan Niehaus started at right guard over freshman Jerome Carvin against Auburn. Then left guard Jahmir Johnson left the game due to injury, forcing another shuffle.
Tennessee followed failed runs on first downs with big passing gains on third downs throughout the win, but an inability to move the football on the ground late in the game allowed the Tigers to stage a comeback bid.
Leading 27-17, Tennessee had the chance to put the game out of reach midway through the fourth quarter when a 42-yard completion from Jarrett Guarantano to Josh Palmer gave the Vols first-and-goal at the Auburn 7-yard-line.
Consecutive runs by Tim Jordan netted 5 yards, and a third-down incompletion forced Tennessee to kick a field goal, which kept Auburn within two scores at 30-17.
"We need to not (just) hold on," sophomore left tackle Trey Smith said. "We need to execute better and close the game out better. We left a lot of points on the board."
Pruitt shared the same thought on the field after the game as he spoke with the SEC Network. With a frenzied celebration going on around him, the coach fresh off his first conference victory was thinking about what his team could have done better.
"We've got to learn to finish," he said. "We've got to do a better job on that last drive there."
Tennessee had a second chance to put the game out of reach, but three straight runs for a total of zero yards stalled the possession on the edge of field-goal range. Tennessee punted, Auburn scored and the Vols had to recover an onside kick to secure the win.
"The coaching staff talked to us about it," Smith said. "We've seen some of the mistakes we made, and we've got to execute better at the end of the day."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.