Vols Sputter in Season Opener: Bad Times Ahead?

There was no Rocky Top playing in the Tennessee hills to open the 2008 college football season. The only sounds heard were a collective groan followed by the ghostly echo of "oh no". The only thing felt was the chilling numbness that déjà vu gives you.

2008 began in much the same manner as 2007 for the Tennessee Volunteers. It began with high expectations and a trip to the West Coast. Both ended with shocking losses.  They say that’s the way it goes sometimes playing college football.

The question is, should it happen twice in a row? The answer to that is a resounding no. But it did and the reason why is glaringly obvious.

The Volunteers lost those games because they came in under prepared. They weren’t ready to play in a big time game that early in the season. The list of reasons why they were not prepared could become a very long list, but only one stands out in giant bold lettering: 

DAVE CLAWSON’S NEW OFFENSE.

The team had all summer to implement and learn the new system but it doesn’t look like they even got the basics down. How can you tell that? Simply because the offense looked confused during the entire game against UCLA.

It looked as if no one knew what play was being ran or where they were supposed to be in the formation. To be brutally honest, it was embarrassing.

There were, fortunately, a couple of bright spots that came from the game. Those are the running game and the first half defense. The ground attack was the only part of the Vols offense that was clicking. The backs slashed and gashed through the Bruins' D. Arian Foster and Montario Hardesty combined for 162 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns, with Hardesty scoring them both.

The defense was a tale of two halves. In the first half, the defense rekindled the fires of Volunteer defenses of the past.

They didn’t give up anything in the first half, stonewalling every UCLA attempt. They forced Bruins quarterback, Kevin Craft, into four interceptions, bringing one back for a score. The second half was a different story all together. The Vols gave up 17 points and made Craft look like a Heisman contender. They played an uninspired half of football.

Maybe all of the negatives can be chalked up to first game jitters. It’s a long season with a lot of tests. Which side of the fence this season falls on depends on how fast the kinks get worked out.

The Vols had a bye this past weekend and welcome Alabama-Birmingham to Knoxville on September 13.  In a sense, that gives them two weeks to get their act together. Why only two weeks? Because September 20 is quickly approaching.

That is the day that the Gators come to town. They follow that up with a trip to Auburn and Georgia, with a game against Northern Illinois sandwiched in between. If the Vols don’t get things straightened out by them they could be looking at a 2-4 record to start the season. That means that this could be a long, brutal season on Rocky Top.