Tennessee Insider Breaks Down the Biggest Keys vs. Texas

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3:01There's a lot of activity over there. Of course, we've got you covered inside Texas. Brent, how's it going, buddy? I'm good, man. Hope you're doing well. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, it's been a long week of studying as we were just talking about. We haven't crossed paths a whole lot. A lot of what I'm learning about Tennessee is brand new. Some of those preconceived notions are already out the window. Where are these wide splits? Where's the throwing? Where's all that? What's going on right now with Tennessee Valk football? Well, it's evolved. I mean, and I think this world as a coach, you better be evolving. I think Steve Sarkisian's evolved. I think Will Musschamp's evolved as a defensive coordinator. Josh Hyples certainly evolving as an offensive play collar. But also as an off from a schematic standpoint. What's interesting is Tennessee made a pretty seismic shift in some of those splits. After their appearance in the college football playoff two years ago, where they lost at Ohio State, which by the way had gym nobles as their defensive coordinator, who's now Tennessee's defensive coordinator. That night, Tennessee left there going, you know what?

4:02We have to have more answers on offense. For different looks that we're seeing, different things that we're seeing, we have to have more answers. And I think that started the true evolution of Tennessee's offense. They still have the widespread stuff in there. But it's not as, it's more sophisticated, more diverse, if you will. I guess is a better way to say it offensively than it was in 21 and 22, when this offense kind of took the SEC by storm those first couple of years. Absolutely. I turn on the tape and make sure I was watching the right team. You know, in this line of work, we're always watching August for storylines, the inside information, what we expect out of the team. There's always a couple of storylines. What were those storylines for Tennessee and what have you seen so far through the first three games? Well, the storyline was who was going to be the quarterback. And how was that going to go? It was going to be a young quarterback regardless. And it ends up being a phasom brand and a freshman quarterback who arrived on campus in January.

5:02He never went home to see his mom and dad. They came and saw him. He never left campus, didn't leave for spring break, didn't leave for any kind of mini-term break or anytime in the summer. He was unknocks full the entire time to try to go win the job. And ultimately, he ends up winning the job. And now the storyline is how quickly can he advance? How quickly can he progress in this offense? Josh Hyple has had great success with quarterbacks, young quarterbacks. But that was with the old wide split stuff, which everybody was trying to figure out. So what's the success look like this year with phasom brand? And that was storyline number one. Storyline number two was the arrival of Jim Knowles. Josh Hyple did something he had not done before. He made a hardcore significant staff changes in letting his defensive coordinator Tim Banks go. Retools has defensive side of the ball with Jim Knowles at a large sum of money. So there's a lot of expectation with that. And then he made another critical decision in letting his strength coach go.

6:02That had been with him since his days at Central Florida. And he goes out in the Hiresdairch Owens from Indiana, essentially days before Indiana wins the national title. The morning after Owens gets on a plane and comes to Knoxville and begins work. Those were the three storylines really about this team as you headed into fall camp and certainly week one. Man, that's that's a good sign when the head coach is willing to make the tough decisions. You know, all too often you see these coaches come with their best friends and all that and then they they're way too low to them far too long. We've seen we saw that with Mac Brown and Greg Davis back in the day certainly. You know, every team we're starting to see the injuries mount up a little bit with three games into the season. You guys have been hit hard at one particular position. It seems like, but also you're you're loaded at that position running back, of course. On inside Texas, we had an update on some injuries that we're watching ahead of this game. What are the injuries you guys are paying attention to? Yeah, I think Ted is he's going to end up being okay at running back this week. I expect Javin Gordon, the transfer from Tulane, who was held out last week to be back.

7:05The Sean Bishop got banged up in the Kennesaw State game last week. Tried to come back in the second half. Had a couple carries was uncomfortable. Game was in hand. They took him out. The feeling is that he's going to he's going to go on Saturday. The question is does he hold up? You know, does he deal with any kind of pain if he gets popped on that hip back area? But Tennessee's been hit hard with injury at the safety position, which is a concern. Edree's for Rook was scheduled to be a starter. He dislocated his knee, you know, kind of a freak collision on the practice field and 11 on 11 work. Day before Tennessee's first scrimmage, and then they suffered a second injury at the safety spot against Kennesaw State and back up Dylan Lewis, who I would not expect him to play this week. So I think the result is that Tennessee's thin at safety. And that would be one of your biggest concerns that you have for two reasons. One, what all Texas can do in the passing game. And two, what all gym knowles needs the safeties to do in his defense, because it's very safety heavy, very safety oriented.

8:11Yeah, that's one thing I know is right out of the gates was they like to run three high and at times three high safeties have given Texas trouble. Depth obviously there and another issue with there when you have three safeties, it's kind of a cohesion is a big deal. And knows in his first year in install. So cohesion is sort of hard to come by. You got it. It takes time. Talk about the running backs and Dishon Bishop Texas. I know our sources were talking about on their raving about him. They said this is going to be a good run of running backs for Texas. They've got after this. It's OU and OU. You know, they've got their issues, but then they have Kwan Lacey and and Jaden ball. So we're going to learn a lot about how Texas can can deal with Bishop. But it seems like, you know, with the new freshman quarterback, they're trying to put him in a in a fortuitous environment to have success. Obviously they don't want to put the whole passing menu on his plate. And then they're doing in the run game to sort of ease his transition into while he earns experience. Well, what's interesting is I think the notion about this offense is that you throw it 75 times a game, right? Like you throw it all the time. The reality is this offense is largely rooted in the run game. Even back when it was widespread stuff.

9:15Tennessee is rushed for 2500 yards or more. Four out of the five seasons that Josh Hyple has been here last year. They rushed for 2400 yards. That's never been done in Tennessee history. And you think about the history of running at Tennessee and the back should have come through to stack years upon years like that in the run game. It tells you how committed they are to running it. Now they run it differently. It's not the old formation and you know, it's not the road greater guys up front. But they want to run the football and have to run the football. Dishon Bishop is a workman. He's kind of a blue collar guy. He's not the flashiest guy in the world. He doesn't have great breakaway speed. He has really good vision. He has a good jump cut. He feels it. He has good patience. Those are the things you like about him in this run game. But here's the challenge for this run game this week. And that is those two big heavies that are sitting in the middle of Texas's defensive line. And what can Tennessee do physically against those guys, particularly when one of them is going to line up over a shade over the center often times and try to try to force it one way or the other out of the A gap.

10:22You know, force everything right or force everything left. Can Tennessee hold up in the interior because that's been a challenge when teams have negated Tennessee's ability to run the football. It's largely been due to interior pressure more than it is. Edge pressure or even even a linebacker coming down in the box because Tennessee does a lot of box count stuff. They love to get to the second to climb to the second level quickly with their offensive line. The challenges can they can they win enough battles. Can they win enough stalemates up front against those two big defensive tackles to create some of those creases they try to create in the run game. Yeah, Texas is in a good spot up there. They've got two guys that they can play than two more and then they've got really good depth even going beyond that. You know, when I was looking at the tape, one thing I was surprised about was the, you know, it seems like there's good bones to this Tennessee team. It's a quality team. There's, you know, I like what they see. I see the infrastructure. The offensive line seems solid. I love your left tackle. Of course, everybody loves him.

11:24I know that's the same issue at right guard and left guard. I think that's one place Texas can maybe assert itself and that's certainly an emphasis in practice of being the more physical team. Whoever is more physical is probably going to come out with the victory. Physicality is going to set the tone as far as the run game, but also setting up Brandon for some passing to some talented water severs. What have you seen from him outside of as a pastor. I saw that a beautiful RPO touchdown he had against Georgia tech through a good deep ball as well. The talent is there. How much of the play of the the offensive playbook from a passing standpoint is open to him right now. Well, I mean, I think it's, I think it's all open, but I don't think they've called it all. I mean, I think he's got a pretty good understanding of it, but I think they've been pretty vanilla with some stuff by design. The difference for him in this game is going to be as it's going to be this. What's open? Who's really open in this game compared to what's been open for him in two of the first three games. Ferman couldn't cover Tennessee in game one, right? You look at last week they open the game against Kennesaw State. They get stale on a drag across the field for 33 yards and they can't just stay just couldn't cover it.

12:32They couldn't physically from a talent standpoint cover it that way. So the question becomes this week. If you're waiting for someone to be wide open, you're probably not going to get what you're looking for. So the windows are tighter. Your timing has to be better and your desire to rip it has to be better. And so he has been very much take what the defense gives me. So he's faced a lot of drop eight coverage. How much drop eight coverage is will must champ going to throw out in this week versus heating up and try to come at him. This Texas believe they can win one on one matchups on the outside that Tennessee receivers can't beat them in May and coverage. And he's going to really get after him. Is he going to try to make him read the field? Is he going to try to confuse him in a lot of different ways? I think that's what we're all curious to see. The talent is very, was very evident. But how does that talent translate early in his career against a quality team talent wise and a defensive coordinator who's got a toolbox that's really, really deep.

13:36You know, it's funny, you know, Eric and in a lot of these matchups, we talk about Jimmy's and Joe's right. It's all about how the defensive end matches up against the left tackle and can the corner, you know, play press man against him and this that. I think the headset matchup in this game is going to be really intriguing because Jim Knowles, what does he try to do to disrupt archmaning and give him different looks and try to get him off filter. How does Will Must Champ attack a freshman quarterback? What's Tennessee's counter to the tendencies that must champ has? What is Sarkeesian's counters to the tendencies that Jim Knowles has having faced him twice in his career already. I think the headset matchup in this game is really fascinating. Who adapts and adjusts throughout the game for 60 minutes will be fun to watch. Are you ready to love your kitchen and bathroom again? Lux kitchen and bath will bring that to life. Lux has been offering high-end kitchen and bathroom remodels for three generations throughout the greater Austin area.

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15:42Talk about the defensive line. I see some good players there and also how they interact with the linebackers. I mean, I think the one thing that has been encouraging through three games that the notion when Jim Noles got hired was man his schemes really complicated. It takes two years to learn it. You know, you don't really know it until you're in your second year. I think Tennessee's been ahead in that regard. And the reason they're ahead is Anthony Point Dexter comes to manage the back end of the defense. He's with Noles a year ago at Penn State. Then he brings with him Day Jean Lane at safety. They bring a Murray Campbell at linebacker from Penn State and then Xavier Gilliam on the defensive line they bring from Penn State. So there's a Penn State player who knows the system at all three levels. I think that has helped with the install and speeding some of that stuff up. So Tennessee is not at a bunch of bust to this point. Can they do that on Saturday? We'll see. The big question about this team on the defensive line was could they get after the quarterback to this point they've done a nice job.

16:44They really have they've got 11 sacks on the season up front. But again, they haven't played what they're getting ready to play on Saturday. So can Xavier Gilliam get home? Can Mary on die who's got three sacks as a sophomore who seems to be coming into his own? Can he do that in this game? They're talented up front. They're a bit young and we'll see you know how they play physically in this game for 60 minutes. And then what does Noles do schematically to do that the deepest position on this team on the defensive side of balls at linebacker. They played some two linebacker stuff three linebacker stuff and some four linebacker stuff. What do they do linebacker wise in this game? They've played some three man front walked a linebacker up. Do they think a linebacker can hold the edge against Texas is offensive line in the run game? I don't know that's a part of that. All right, you know point counterpoint adjust adapt and everything as we go through. I think I think the coaches who adapt the best throughout this game will be the team that ends up winning this football game at the end.

17:51Yeah, I've seen I've noticed walking up. I think number 22 tell tell under. He's on the line of scrimmage a lot. You know, we talked about the Xs knows what we do have to talk about the gym. He's a little bit at water seeker and defensive back. You guys got really good cornerbacks. One of them can Lee is a former Auburn player matched up with Cam Coleman practice countless times. The cornerback Ty Redmond is a big physical and talented guy. Some of these guys are just big and physical. He's talented and your nickel is quite good as well and Texas, you know, Texas has three quality water seevers. How do you see this going? Well, I think the two things one this this second day hasn't been tested over the top. Nobody's taking a lot of deep shots on them because they haven't had the they haven't had the wide receivers. They can do that. Okay, Cam Coleman can get behind anybody. So can Ryan Wingo. So how does Tennessee cover the full length of the field the vertical part of it down the field. And then I think tackling is going to be at a premium because all three of these guys are good with the ball in their hands yard after catches. So how do you tackle.

18:53And how do you play over the top? I don't think mostly it's mostly right. I don't think he gets enough credit. Now he's benefiting understand from the fact that Ryan Wingo's out wide and Coleman's out wide, but he is a nice nice player who can do a lot of different things. That is a real interesting match up to how Tennessee defends him in the middle of the field and some of the underneath stuff as well to slot fades that they like to run. Where are they mostly is an ex factor to me in this game because Cam Coleman and Wingo get so much attention and rightfully so how does Tennessee handle that third receiver and and mostly will be a storyline. As you mentioned, there's a ton of story lines as you get into conference play. We know much more about Texas because they'll have a state game than we know about Tennessee right now. Yeah, I feel that way to watching the Kennesaw State firm and even this year's George attack. It's a down version of George attack. He couldn't learn much. Do you have a handful of keys to this game?

19:53Yeah, I think a couple things we've talked about some of them, but one that I think is really important in this game is red zone efficiency. Who wins in the red zone. Texas in the fourth quarter against Ohio State. You don't see many teams go 15 plays, 14 plays, whatever the other drive was. You know, somewhere along the way you fall behind the sticks. You don't make a play. You force upon. They executed brilliantly in the fourth quarter. Teams are going to move the football in this game and both defenses. I think they're going to do whatever they can to try to prevent that explosive play and make you earn it. Okay, can you go 15 plays without a penalty get you behind the sticks and then when you get into the red zone who holds teams out of the in zone and forces field goals or gets a stop. You go back and look at these two matchups that sarkees and in those have had previously four red zone trips by sarkees and in those two games. Only two touchdowns have come out of that. So can you win in the red zone defensively if you're Tennessee. Can you win in the red zone offensively if you're Tennessee against that big Texas defense that you have out there.

20:59So I think red zone efficiency who has to settle for field goals versus whose scores touchdowns is a really key in this game. Yeah, you mentioned a couple of things that we think have improved for Texas. You know, you mentioned that you guys are good at getting after the quarter back right now. Texas's past protection is vastly improved over last year, at least we think it's still a small sample size. A red zone efficiency is largely improved for Texas too, but again, it's a small sample size. I think it all starts up front. It's cliche to say that, but whoever, especially for Texas, if they can keep brand and in the pocket and force him to do grown up quarterback things as opposed to just deliver the ball and hand off Texas a chance and go up. But man, I got to admit, I like what I see from this ball's program. A lot of talent, good infrastructure, a high pool adapting to to the realities of college football seem to be going well for him. I'm intrigued. I'm going to be following Tennessee the rest of the year no matter what happens on Saturday. There's going to be a lot of Texas fans headed in Knoxville. Do you have a couple places, a couple hot spots, a couple sites and sounds that they should check it check out.

22:03I mean, I think it's, you know, it's beautiful here because the river and everything that runs through the stadium obviously game day is going to be here. You know, it's, it's a unique place from the standpoint of it. I mean, the stadium just sets along the river and it's not the greatest footprint to get into. So you have to have a little patience getting in there. But yeah, I mean, there's, you know, the West end of town. There's a ton of really good restaurants to hang out. I mean, cow hoons on the rivers a staple that a lot of people want to see because it's closest to the stadium. But, you know, there's a, there's market square downtown. It's got some great restaurants as well on a Friday night. It's a lot of fun. So there's plenty of things to do. There's great mountains. If you're coming in on Friday and you're looking for something to do, most people got to get in bed and get ready to get up and get coffee and get going at noon. I wish this was a night game. I'm sure they are. I mean, they know that's that's the better scenario than playing at night if you're the road team. But, you know, Tennessee's a morning practice team.

23:04They hope that it helps them. But it'll be a great atmosphere between two great fan bases who understand college football, who understand a tradition of college football. And I'm glad these two teams are finally getting together in this league and it feels right that these two blue blood. It's hard to believe they've never played on each other's campus. Yeah, it seems crazy that that's the case. But I think it's a good thing when you look at all the history of these two programs. I think it's great that for college football, it's to get together on Saturday. Absolutely. He's Brent hubs with Valkwest, American only with inside Texas.com. Appreciate you watching. College football is back. So, Hilton called me the superstition concierge to make your fan rituals a reality. Need a room to match your lucky number. We got you want to make sure our team doesn't want your lucky Jersey. Oh, that smells lucky. Hilton's unmatched hospitality can keep up with any superstition. You're going to be in a marching band. Wake up call it 55 55 seconds. Hit it. When you need a team that will do whatever it takes on game day, it matters where you stay. Hilton for the stay.

24:11This Friday, it's you and me boy. Two soldiers bonded for life. 50, 58 miles. No one's coming for us. When anyone else would quit, they'll do the impossible. I got you and get home. Part of the beast is an uplifting trial. You're the greatest dog ever. Brett. I'll get you home. Part of the beast Friday, maybe 13 maybe inappropriate for children out of 13. This episode is brought to you by SoFi, the everything app for smarter money, banking, investing, borrowing and more. Make your first move with SoFi, chicken and savings. Earn up to 3.80% savings APY for up to six months. No account fees plus a cash bonus up to $400 when you sign up with eligible direct deposit. Terms apply. SoFi.com slash smart money. SoFi. Get your money right. SoFi, chicken and savings is offered through SoFi bank NA member FDIC.