Tennessee Football: 5 Offensive Improvements Vols Must Make Before Bowl Game

Back when Tennessee's offense fired on all cylinders against South Carolina and Kentucky, and Joshua Dobbs went from unheralded starter to star, it appeared the Vols had found the rhythm to be a point-scoring juggernaut.

Then, reality struck.

All of a sudden in the season's final two games against Missouri and Vanderbilt, Dobbs couldn't get out of the pocket. The Vols couldn't throw downfield. Jalen Hurd couldn't find daylight. And UT reverted to the struggles that made fans question the play-calling acumen of offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian early in the season.

Despite the sputtering stretch, Tennessee did just enough to beat Vandy and make a bowl game.

Now, with its likely bowl dates occurring on Dec. 29 or 30, the Vols have approximately a little less than a month to recapture their offensive identity.

VU is one of the worst teams in all of football, and Tennessee needed several big defensive plays to bail out its offense and squeak out a win. That won't happen against a bowl-bound team, so Bajakian and the Vols must straighten things out. 

Tennessee is thrilled to be heading to a bowl game for the first time in four years. But what kind of success the Vols have once they get there sits squarely on how far its offense can take them.

Let's take a look what Tennessee has to do between now and the end of the month to be a handful for its opponent.

Accurate Assault

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For all the positive vibes he has brought to the program, the way he willed the Vols to a win over South Carolina with his arm and over Vanderbilt with his legs, Joshua Dobbs is far from a finished product.

You can tell in the past two game plans that UT coaches don't quite trust him to run the offense yet against quality defenses.

Dobbs is struggling with the same things that many quarterbacks his age with his level of inexperience do. Most noticeably, his accuracy isn't where it needs to be.

Granted, he has about two seconds to throw the ball before UT's offensive line allows the pocket to collapse in on him, but that's pretty much the hand he's dealt.

The 6'3", 216-pound sophomore has all the tools to be a dynamic talent over the next two years in the SEC, but he has to work on his passing. Whether it's overshooting receivers or throwing to the back shoulder on quick-hitters, his ball placement must get better.

Back when everybody was "oohing" and "ahhing" about his epic performance against South Carolina, offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian was giving raw truth to GoVols247's Ryan Callahan (subscription required) about Dobbs' improvements and inefficiencies:

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I'd say number one [improvement] is the quickness with which he's making decisions. Obviously, there's a lot we need to work on as it relates to footwork and ball location. But he's been much more decisive in his decision-making process, and his vision has also improved. He's able to come off the field and give me very detailed accounts of what he saw, which is usually very accurate.

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As the defenses have improved, the accuracy issues have surfaced. It's all about a comfort level, and while it starts with the offensive line, this month is about getting 15 more practice sessions for Dobbs to continue to grow and develop.

Down the Field

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Marquez North battled through injuries and inconsistency in what wound up a forgettable sophomore season. But when healthy, he was still an incredible offensive weapon.

When he was lost for the season with a torn labrum, the Vols offense took a crippling blow. He took along with him most of UT's downfield passing threats.

With Josh Malone battling through that freshman wall, the Vols are trying to find anybody who can catch a pass beyond 15 yards from the line of scrimmage. Those weapons essentially didn't exist during the past two games.

Pig Howard and Von Pearson can do some things in the intermediate passing game, but Tennessee failed to prove it can produce playmakers capable of filling North's big cleats. The nasty ankle sprain Josh Smith suffered earlier this year that resulted in surgery looms extra-large now.

Really, it's been a season full of injuries for coach Zach Azzanni's receivers. According to GoVols247's Wes Rucker (subscription required):

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Suffice it to say, what could have been the SEC's best wide receiver corps is now a fraction of that, and the Vols still have some decent options but just aren't overly dynamic at that position. And it seems incredible to write that sentence when considering just how special that group seemed to be heading into this season. Surely 2015—when even more wideout talent will be on the field, if you can believe that—won't be quite so nasty from a health standpoint. That would be very unfortunate.

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Malone has to improve his practice habits and become a dependable weapon. Jason Croom must emerge the same way he has done in glimpses of displaying his massive potential this year.

How long has it been since the Vols hit a downfield-pass play? They're past due. It's a big reason why UT is next-to-last in total offense in the SEC.

Mix and Match Up Front

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Writers attempting to describe Tennessee's offensive line this season have exhausted every synonym for "bad." 

How bad? They've allowed 42 sacks, along with Penn State. Only Miami (Ohio), Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, SMU and Wake Forest have given up more in all of the Football Championship Subdivision. It's the worst offensive line in the modern era for UT, and it simply hasn't gotten better.

Against Mizzou and Vanderbilt, it regressed after only allowing three sacks in the first three games where Joshua Dobbs was quarterback. 

Something's got to give. But how do you fix the unfixable? 

Tennessee has to try.

Over the course of the next month, the Vols must find a formula that works. Kyler Kerbyson (who is an extremely productive interior lineman) needs to move from tackle to guard after being shifted out there by coaches due to necessity.

UT has to either get Mack Crowder healthy at center, or it has to find somebody who can be more consistent than Dylan Wiesman.

The Vols have to get Brett Kendrick—who has played admirably in spurts—more reps at tackle. They need to go ahead and move Coleman Thomas back inside to his natural center position. They have to give redshirt junior Dontavius Blair some significant reps at left tackle (for the future).

Most importantly, they've got to get everybody healthy who have played through the nicks, bangs and bruises.

Many times, offensive lines jell and improve with time together. This month needs to be used to find the best five to put on the football field, and to get a serviceable set of backups to find something (anything) that works.

It has been painful to watch, and there needs to be a solid bowl performance upon which to build heading into next year.

After Hurd, It's Been Absurd

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Take Jalen Hurd from this offense, and what do you have?

Tennessee fans saw the ugly answer in that Vanderbilt game. Pretty much, any play call that went for positive yardage was a designed quarterback run by Joshua Dobbs.

Without Hurd—whose mysterious injury was classified as an "upper-body extremity" injury by the ever-vague Butch Jones, according to The Tennessean's Adam Sparks—Dobbs was the Vols' only real running threat.

Banged-up senior Marlin Lane had 16 carries for 51 yards and three catches for 25 more in a pedestrian effort, and he now has a month to heal up from a senior season riddled with injuries. Talented freshman Derrell Scott (or, we hear he's talented, anyway) remains in a cast, so he is unreliable.

Hurd should be fine for the bowl game, but what if he isn't? Also, the kid needs a breather every once in a while. 

Help is on the way in a big way next year with Alvin Kamara, Rocky Reid and company, but what about this year? Tennessee needs another dependable running back, and whether that's getting Lane healthy or getting Scott healthy, something has to happen.

Maybe UT can have a healthy Devrin Young for his final game on Rocky Top. Somebody certainly needs to provide some reserve carries for Hurd.

Third Down...Or Not

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It's hard to score points when you can't sustain drives. It doesn't take an aerospace engineer like Joshua Dobbs to figure that out.

So it's no wonder the Vols struggled on that side of the ball, considering they were a combined 8-of-28 on third-down conversions against Mizzou and the Commodores. That's after going 25-of-51 with Dobbs behind center against Alabama, South Carolina and Kentucky.

Of course, part of the reason for the Vols' third-down success was because the defenses of the Gamecocks and Wildcats are horrible, but UT also was 11-of-17 in third downs against 'Bama once Dobbs replaced Nathan Peterman. That's crazy production.

The offensive line has got to hold blocks long enough for Dobbs to get outside the pocket and make things happen with his feet. When he's able to do that, he can put so much pressure on defenses. He wasn't able to do that against the relentless edge pressure from Mizzou or the zone blitzing from VU.

Teams sort of found ways to neutralize Dobbs once they got a little film on him, but that's more of a product of UT's struggling surrounding cast than a flaw of his. The Vols simply must find ways around the inefficiencies.

Pig Howard and Von Pearson must get open more quickly, and UT somehow has to find a way to get tight end Ethan Wolf involved again in the offense. He's been a nonfactor catching the ball the second half of the season.

There's no reason for Mike Bajakian to not be able to fix some things in this month. If he doesn't, UT is going to finish with yet another losing season.

All stats gathered from UTSports.com or CFBStats.com, unless otherwise noted.

Brad Shepard covers SEC football and is the Tennessee Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow Brad on Twitter @Brad_Shepard.