Is Tennessee’s leap for real, and has its rocket ship ride in Year 2 under coach Josh Heupel made it a legitimate national title contender?
“I think so. People say, ‘Oh, spread teams can’t win the national championship.’ No, teams that can’t run the ball can’t win the national championship,” one assistant who has faced the Vols this year said. “Tennessee can run the ball.”
Is Georgia’s juggernaut program already capable of reloading from a national title run, after losing five first-round picks and the Butkus Award winner, to capture back-to-back titles?
“Last year’s defense was historic, and they’re not quite on that level, but they’re still really good,” said a coordinator who faced Georgia this year. “They don’t bust coverages. They don’t make mistakes. They just don’t give you anything easy.”
On Saturday, the two historic SEC East powers will face off in a matchup of No. 1 (Tennessee) and No. 3 (Georgia), according the College Football Playoff rankings. This week, The Athletic spoke with eight people, including head coaches, coordinators and position coaches around the SEC and among those who have faced the Bulldogs and/or the Vols, to get insight into the matchup.
They were granted anonymity for competitive reasons and to allow for a more unfiltered look at the matchup from the perspective of coaches.
Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs are 8-0 entering their showdown with Tennessee on Saturday. (Dale Zanine / USA Today)
Tennessee’s offense has been the story of the season’s first two months. Hendon Hooker is the Heisman Trophy front-runner. Receiver Jalin Hyatt exploded onto the national scene with five touchdown catches against Alabama and may win the Biletnikoff Award. Even though neither Heupel nor anyone on his staff coached under Art Briles at Baylor, they’ve used his system to reboot the Tennessee program in just more than one season.
“Peak Art Briles Baylor, his last few years, the Bryce Petty Years, this Tennessee team is the closest to that of any other team that’s tried to run that,” a coordinator said. “Kendal Briles, Jeff Lebby, Dino Babers, everyone has evolved. Kendal and Lebby added some of (Lane Kiffin’s) stuff. Sean Lewis and Kent State evolved up north with weather and body types after he left Dino. But Tennessee runs the most stripped-down version of peak Baylor. They don’t run a whole lot of plays. They just get wide, get athletes in space and run by people.”
Arkansas and Ole Miss also run Briles’ Baylor system in the SEC, along with programs like Oklahoma and Syracuse. But why have the Vols separated themselves from other programs that run similar schemes and taken this offense into hyperdrive?
Multiple coaches pointed to personnel.
“They have a quarterback who can run and throw the deep ball. So all of a sudden you have to defend both edges of the field, you gotta defend him running and you have to defend the field vertically,” an assistant said. “That’s just a lot.”
Last year, Tennessee ranked 17th in offensive yards per play, at 6.47 yards. It was much improved from 2020 and great, but a step short of elite. This year, it has made the leap to 7.4 yards per play and third nationally, almost a full yard more per play through seven games. Why?
Several coaches pointed to Hooker and the receivers having a deeper understanding of the offense.
“He has much better feel for reading routes, and he’s on the same page as receivers. They seem to all be working together and understanding if a corner is playing on top of them, they’re going to come back down the stem. If they feel like they have the corner beat, they’re going to run past them,” one coordinator said. “He and the receivers are just in tune. That’s the difference.”
Added another assistant: “The quarterback understands where the ball needs to go when different things happen. And the receivers have gotten better. He’s more accurate because he understands where to go with the football earlier.”
Alabama failed to stop Tennessee on the way to 52 points in a loss — the most an Alabama team has surrendered since 1907.
As simple as the offense is on paper, it gets complicated when the ball is snapped, and the Vols are enjoying the fruits of experience this year.
“A lot of their routes are read routes. There’s one play call, but there are a number of different combinations of what the route can end up being. It can be one play call, but you can get a stop and a go, you can get two goes, you can get two stops,” one head coach said. “And they pair that with in-breakers. The switch release, the outside guy can have a go or a stop, and the inside guy can have a go or a dig. There aren’t a lot of calls, but there are a lot of variations of what the routes can become based on the read.”
Can Georgia at least slow the red-hot Vols?
Multiple coaches pointed to two ways to do it: slow Tennessee’s run game and pressure Hooker. But both have to happen with only five or six bodies. Georgia is one of just a few teams with the talent level and depth to do it.
“Georgia can give them issues in the run game. Everyone focuses on the pass game, but what makes the Baylor offense go is the run game,” a coordinator said. “I think Georgia can take away the run game, but where they’ll have issues is covering these guys in the secondary. Kelee Ringo is one of the best corners in the country, but there’s a drop-off after him, and they have some depth issues at corner. That’s Georgia’s only weakness.
“When Tennessee throws four receivers at you going vertical over and over and over, at some point something’s gonna pop.”
Tennessee’s offense is built around numbers: If there are too few bodies in the box, Hooker will hand the ball off to backs and have them run behind the experienced, physical offensive line. If the box is stacked with six or seven defenders, that means at least one receiver is left single-covered. If defenses play too soft, receivers will cut off their route and take 10 yards. Oklahoma infamously learned the hard way in 2014 that loading the box and then playing off receivers to prevent deep balls won’t work.
If defenses stack the box and play up to let corners run on the outside, Tennessee leans on its speed to outrun them.
And in the case of last week against Kentucky, their route combinations can be lethal. Tennessee used Cedric Tillman and Hyatt stacked together to Hooker’s right side, with Tillman drawing attention from a safety on a switch route inside to free Hyatt on a vertical route up the sideline for a pair of long touchdowns.
“Tennessee runs that switch-vertical like eight times a game,” one coordinator said. “When you’re running that play and you’ve got the receivers they’ve got and the quarterback they’ve got, it’s kind of unstoppable.”
Ultimately, stopping — or at least slowing down — Tennessee comes down to having the talent to win one-on-one matchups, multiple coaches said. Most teams don’t, especially with what the Vols have at receiver this year. But Georgia might. And if it does it enough, the Bulldogs can limit Tennessee enough to outscore it.
“I don’t know how great Georgia is at corner. No. 3 in Kelee Ringo, I don’t know if he’s a speed guy, and every time I watch Tennessee, their guys are running past somebody. They make you get one-on-one matchups and that’s the Achilles’ heel of Georgia,” a coordinator said. “I don’t know if they can run with them in their matchups.”
Tennessee’s lightning-quick tempo has been a problem for everyone it has faced, and coaches who faced Georgia’s defense have seen pace be an issue for the Bulldogs.
“I think Tennessee can give them problems with that. The biggest thing Georgia struggles with is exotic formations and bunches in the boundary. I know Georgia killed Oregon but that staff, Dan Lanning, they know Georgia’s defensive scheme really well. Oregon tried to do a ton of that. Quads in the boundary and exotic shifts and motions,” a coordinator said. “Tennessee is going to play fast and do similar things.”
Tennessee uses tempo to catch defenses out of position and in the middle of receiving defensive calls, as well as to tire out defenses. But that constant threat of tempo means most defenses install game plans knowing they’ll struggle to make pre-snap checks. And the Vols use that against defenses.
“When you play with the threat of snapping the ball quickly on any play, it really vanillas out what you can do defensively,” one head coach said. “They will also use dummy cadence, and coach Heupel and his staff will diagnose what you’re doing and then get into the right play.”
Georgia learned this week that linebacker Nolan Smith will miss the remainder of the season with a torn pectoral muscle. One position coach felt Georgia could lean on its depth and recruiting strength to play without him. A coordinator who faced Georgia was far more skeptical.
“He’s special. He kind of makes them go,” he said. “He’s their best pass rusher. They move him all over the place. He plays extremely hard. He’s probably a first-round pick. That’s a huge loss for Georgia.”
No coaches contacted by The Athletic felt Georgia could severely limit what Tennessee’s offense can do.
“I think Georgia will take away the run, but Tennessee will have some big plays,” a coordinator said. “If they can do it against Alabama, they can do it against Georgia.”
One obvious key for Georgia will be putting up enough points to keep control of the East against an offense expected to score. Nearly every coach raved about the Bulldogs’ tight end room, led by Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington.
“(Bowers) is special. I came away from that game thinking this might be one of the greatest tight ends of all time,” a coordinator said. “Everyone talks about (Michael) Mayer and the Utah kid (Dalton Kincaid), and I’m like, ‘Why is no one talking about Bowers?’ They’ve got a historic tight end room. Those guys are really special.”
Georgia tight end Brock Bowers has scored six touchdowns this season. (John David Mercer / USA Today)
Bowers led the national champs in receiving last year as a true freshman and is doing it again this year, but Washington has grown into a much bigger role in the offense.
“They do a great job of designing stuff to get guys the ball. They’ll have some designed plays to get Bowers the ball. And they’ll have some plays for (Washington),” one assistant said. “He looks like an offensive tackle playing receiver. It’s ridiculous.”
Bowers was the only person on Georgia’s offense who left multiple coaches raving, although several noted that quarterback Stetson Bennett gets shortchanged when people divvy out credit for Georgia’s success. The word “special” came up multiple times in regards to Bowers.
Earlier this year, Bowers broke a 75-yard rushing touchdown on an end-around.
“He’s just an incredible player. I’ve never seen anyone do that,” an assistant said.
One coach pointed to the absence of running back James Cook and receiver George Pickens as two pieces Georgia has been unable to replace in 2022, to the detriment of the offense.
“I don’t think they have that kind of playmaker at running back, but Stetson has taken his game to another level,” one coordinator said.
Added another coordinator: “The only reason Stetson Bennett was a walk-on and why he gets undersold is because he’s short. But he can make every throw.”
Every coach who faced Georgia liked the Bulldogs’ chances to move the ball on Tennessee’s defense. Multiple coaches said Tennessee’s cornerbacks are known for playing physically and toeing the line of interference, daring officials to throw pass interference flags more than they prefer.
“The things they do defensively allow them to get their offense back on the field and not give up a ton of points. It’s not a bend but not break style, but they’re willing to give up some stuff underneath they can rally to,” one head coach said. “They’re not going to give up big plays over their head. (Defensive coordinator Tim) Banks does a good job of keeping everything in front of them while also creating negative plays.”
Tennessee ranks 20th nationally with just five plays longer than 40 yards surrendered. That’s the same number as Michigan and Alabama.
The Vols have done that while also blitzing more than five rushers on 37.7 percent of snaps, the highest percentage in the SEC and 13th nationally.
“More of their pressure is on third-and-medium-plus, rather than first or second downs,” one head coach said.
This season, that has helped Tennessee produce 16 takeaways in seven games. Only 13 teams have more.
But one coordinator felt Georgia’s offense was well suited to take advantage of Tennessee’s defensive front and exploit matchups with their tight ends.
“Georgia has the firepower and the balance on offense if they can control the game and play complementary football to keep Tennessee’s offense off the field and let the defense recoup,” he said. “That’s their best way to win the game.”
As for Georgia’s defense, one coach saw this year’s group as almost as good as last year, but it has spent much of the first half of the season adjusting to new faces and a new coordinator in Glenn Schumann.
“I don’t think anyone will be able to accumulate the level of talent they had last year, but they’ve figured out what they’re good at and not good at on defense, and they’re starting to play to those strengths,” one coordinator said. “Last year, they were more disruptive. I mean, they had the No. 1 overall pick with (Travon) Walker, the big D-lineman (Jordan Davis). Nakobe Dean, the other guy, went third round. They had a bunch of experienced dudes. This year, they’re less disruptive schematically. They’re not doing as much this year as last year.”
Georgia pressures opposing passers on just 35 percent of dropbacks. That’s No. 39 nationally, down from No. 25 last year.
“Last year, they had some exotic stuff. They’re not as exotic this year, going in and out of funky fronts and mixing D-linemen and linebackers in twists and movements. Last year, they had a lot more exotic stuff,” one assistant said. “It might be youth, and it might be a new play caller and not wanting to put kids in bad situations. All play callers have different philosophies.”
As for why Georgia struggled against Missouri? Multiple coaches pointed to Missouri doing what Tennessee needs to do defensively.
“They know what you’re going to present. So you have to do different things they haven’t done and haven’t seen or repped,” an assistant said. “(Missouri) had played mostly base defense prior to SEC play, and as they got into SEC play, with Georgia as one of their first games, they did a ton of different things in that game they hadn’t shown on film. They were bringing pressure from the field and boundary and created turnovers.”
That gave Georgia’s offense issues, and the Bulldogs lost the turnover battle 2-0 in the game, too.
One coordinator pointed to true freshman Mykel Williams and freshman defensive back Malaki Starks as a pair of future budding stars.
“Mykel Williams, they move him all over and he’ll even play some linebacker. He goes inside. That’s really impressive as a freshman. He’s going to be the next household name on Georgia’s defense. He’s special,” he said. “Malaki Starks, they move him all over. They’ll play him at safety and move him to linebacker in their dime stuff. I know they were five stars, but to come in as freshmen and be as versatile as they are is really impressive. Both those guys are going to be big-time.”
Every coach agreed on the central truth about Georgia: The talent is elite, and the Bulldogs use it as well as any team in the country, even if this team lacks the star power of last year’s national champion.
“They play really hard. They rally to the ball better than anybody in the league. There are always six, seven, eight guys to the ball. They’re coached well. They never seem to misfit run gaps. It’s a really good group,” one assistant said.
One assistant believed defensive lineman Jalen Carter’s return to health could be a game-changer and argued Carter was the best talent on last year’s defense. This spring, another SEC head coach suggested Carter was the best player on Georgia’s defense last season.
Another assistant said the collective football IQ of Georgia’s defense jumps off the film, suggesting the defense takes film study seriously and, as a result, excels at anticipating what opposing offenses will do.
“Obviously, they’ve got incredible players and have recruited well, but what makes them special is they’re extremely well-coached. They’re disciplined. They don’t make mistakes. You see a lot of teams that recruit at a high level, but they can’t get on the same page and play unselfish football,” a coordinator said. “Kirby (Smart) does a phenomenal job of that. They play really hard.”
So what will happen when they finally match up? No coach thought Georgia would win big. Several thought it would be close. But the majority believed Tennessee would win as an underdog in Athens.
“I felt like Tennessee was going to beat Alabama. Georgia matches up with them a little better, but I think Tennessee is going to win,” an assistant said. “Bryce Young played one of the best games of his career or else that would have been a 10-14 point win.”
Added a coordinator, “I see Tennessee winning by 7 or so.”
Every coach expected a high-scoring game.
“It could be a deal where it’s whoever has the ball last. Georgia will be able to move it consistently on Tennessee’s defense,” a coordinator said. “I’ll say 45-42, Georgia. Just because they’ve been there before and it’s in Georgia.”
One head coach asked what the betting line was for the game. Georgia is favored by nine points.
“Nine? Really?” he said, surprised. “That’s interesting. It’s going to be a heck of a matchup. I don’t know if I’d ever discount what coach Smart and (offensive coordinator Todd) Monken are doing over there, but I think it could go either way.”
(Top photo of Hendon Hooker, right, and Jabari Small: Eakin Howard / Getty Images)