Tennessee Vols defense welcoming open-date break

Tennessee linebacker A.J. Johnson carries the ball through the center after intercepting it during the Vols' season-opener football game against the Aggies on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2014, at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.

KNOXVILLE - It's become a cliche of college football coachspeak that there's no such thing as a poorly timed open date.

Tennessee's defense will welcome the break it's getting this week, however.

The Volunteers are coming off a three-week stretch where they allowed 110 points and 1,744 yards, and a unit essentially devoid of any kind of rotation at just about every position badly needs some time to catch its collective breath heading into the final three games of the season.

"I would say that's pretty fair," defensive coordinator John Jancek said after Wednesday's practice. "We do, we needed a break. We went on a six-week stretch there of playing some really good football teams. Our guys battled hard each and every week. I know they'll never admit it, but I think the bye week really comes at a good time for us."

Tennessee was 16th nationally in total defense three weeks ago, but a 469-yard outing by Alabama two weeks ago and South Carolina's 625-yard performance have dropped the Vols to 54th.

Both the Crimson Tide (Amari) and Gamecocks (Pharoh) had wide receivers named Cooper set their respective program's single-game receiving yardage record against Tennessee.

Tennessee linebacker A.J. Johnson (45).

It's not a coincidence that both Alabama and South Carolina are in the top 25 nationally in total offense.

"I think we're tired (after) a six-game gauntlet there, and we're playing against some really good offenses," said secondary coach Willie Martinez, the former Georgia defensive coordinator. "Those are just excuses. We feel like we can play a lot better, and we can execute a lot better.

"We're playing against some better teams, so that's going to happen when you're playing against some really good talent, not that we haven't been playing those all year, because we've been playing against some really good offenses. The rest helps. You get these guys off their feet a little bit and don't give them as many reps in practice so they can be fresh in two weeks."

Fortunately for the Vols, none of the three remaining opponents boast an intimidating offense.

Kentucky is 10th in the SEC in total offense and scored 13 combined points in its two SEC road games at Missouri and LSU, while Missouri and Vanderbilt are 115th and 122nd in the 128-team FBS in total offense.

Of course, Tennessee's defense still has plenty to fix with an extra week.

"I wouldn't say we needed a break," said linebacker A.J. Johnson, the heart and soul of Tennessee's defense, "but we got away from what we was doing early on in the season, getting people off the field on third down. We got away from that the past two games. This off week came at a good time, so we're going to get stuff corrected and get everybody healed up."

In the last three games, Tennessee has allowed 23 plays of 20-plus yards after giving up just 16 such big plays in the first six games of the season. Eight of those plays were touchdowns, including scores of 85, 80 and 70 yards. Those chunk plays have accounted for 804 yards, or 46 percent of the total yards allowed by the Vols in those three games.

Tennessee also has been let down by its third-down defense, a staple of its solid defensive start.

Alabama converted 11 of 15 third downs in its 34-20 win, and South Carolina was 6-of-13 on third downs.

Tennessee entered the Alabama game leading the SEC and ranked eighth nationally in opponent third-down conversion percentage, but the Vols now sit 33rd and seventh in those respective rankings.

"I wouldn't say it's wearing down," linebacker/defensive end Curt Maggitt said. "It's just miscommunication, missed fits -- it's a lot of simple things. It's a lot of simple things and a lot of correctable things -- and that's the good thing -- but the bad thing is that stuff shouldn't be happening."

Jancek said a number of factors have led to the dropoff.

"The offenses that we're playing are pretty good," he explained. "They've got good schemes, good coaches, good players. That's part of it. The other part is the mistakes that we've made and kind of shot ourselves in the foot at different times. There's just some great plays being made out there."

Tennessee essentially has relied on the same 13 players to play the bulk of the snaps, and the rapidly rising snap counts for the defensive starters prompted the Vols to give them time off from practice and focus on developing some of the reserves.

Jancek singled out defensive end Dewayne Hendrix, linebackers Jakob Johnson and Cortez McDowell and Evan Berry and Devaun Swafford in the secondary for what they've done, and Martinez was complimentary of freshman safety Todd Kelly and cornerback Malik Foreman.

The depth is most needed up front along the defensive line and particularly at tackle, where a three-man rotation led to Jordan Williams playing 77 snaps last week.

"Do you want to go out there and play 77 snaps as a three-technique? No, you don't. I'll answer that for you," Jancek said with a smile. "It's just crazy the amount of reps these guys are getting. Justin Coleman had 93 reps. Cam Sutton had 95 reps.

"That's too much, but hey, we're not going to make excuses. The kids won't make excuses. We're just going to keep pushing forward and continue to get better."

Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.