ATHENS — The frustration that often comes with trying to defend Josh Heupel’s Tennessee offense could be heard in the voice of Mark Stoops this past Saturday.
The Kentucky coach’s reputation has been built on sound defensive concepts, playing tough and physical football and always keeping the opponent close. Yet, there Stoops found himself in Knoxville, Tenn., trying to explain why his one-time, Top 10-ranked team just got boat-raced by the Vols, 44-6.
“Yeah, that was very aggravating,” said Stoops, the Wildcats’ 10-year coach, stammering as he spoke. “Um, you know, they put stress on you. We know that. … There were some things they hit us on that we worked the heck out of. We should’ve played better.”
They didn’t play awful, necessarily. Relative to some of the insane numbers the Vols have been producing this season, 422 yards of offense wasn’t that bad. But the Wildcats’ defense found itself rendered mostly helpless during a 26-minute span. Tennessee scored 30 unanswered points in that window, turning a potential “trap game” into further validation of Heupel’s ways and means.
Accordingly, the Vols continued their rise in the Associated Press poll, moving up to No. 2 ahead of Saturday’s game against No. 1-ranked Georgia at Sanford Stadium. There’s a good chance Tennessee could be No. 1 when the first College Football Playoff ranking of the fall is released Tuesday night.
Kirby Smart and his reputable staff of defensive savants is next up to try to solve this equation. It’s one that even Nick Saban and his considerable defensive brain trust failed to decipher in giving up 567 yards and 52 points in a loss earlier this season.
“They go really fast,” Smart said Monday of the Vols’ offense. “They get a lot of at-bats in terms of possessions. And they do start fast.”
Fast is a key term when discussing Tennessee’s offense. Heupel’s concept is running plays so fast that there is no time for the defense to catch its breath or substitute. Their average time between snaps is about 10 seconds.
“Are you in good enough shape? Because, if you’re not, you can’t make it up in one week,” Smart said. “So, it’s one of those things we work really hard on. I don’t know how much other teams condition in the country, but we do a lot because I think it’s really important.”
The Vols also take exaggeratedly wide splits in the offensive line and set their wide receivers outside the numbers. The theory is it forces one-on-one coverage. Then 24-year-old quarterback Hendon Hooker simply picks the matchup he likes best or checks to a handoff when he foresees every defender with their backs to the backfield in man coverage.
The result often is Tennessee’s skill players running free down the field.
“Sometimes it’s like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe they left him wide open like that,’” said Hooker, a fifth-year senior and second-year transfer from Virginia Tech. “Just me getting the ball to my playmakers is the biggest thing.”
Hooker’s biggest playmaker is Jalin Hyatt, a junior from Irmo, S.C. The 6-foot, 185-pound speedster leads the nation with 14 touchdowns and the Vols with 907 yards on 45 receptions, an average of 20.2 per catch. Just last week, Tennessee got back the player it considers its top wideout in Cedric Tillman. He missed four weeks with an ankle injury before returning against Kentucky last Saturday.
Tillman had 10 catches for 200 yards and a touchdown against Georgia last year in Knoxville. Hyatt had five but for only 24 yards.
Georgia was a 41-17 victor in Neyland Stadium. But with mostly the same players, the Vols are playing infinitely better this season.
The difference, Smart said, is the progress of Hooker.
“You know, you can have the best receivers in the world, and they get open all the time, but if you don’t have somebody that can get it to them – they have somebody that can protect (Hooker) and get it to them,” Smart said. “They do a good job of that. Again, that’s the challenge for us this week.”
Statistically, at least, there is no team better suited to defend the Vols than Georgia. The Bulldogs boast the highest-rated defense Tennessee will have faced.
Georgia leads the SEC in total, scoring and rushing defense and is second in the league against the pass. Nationally, the Bulldogs are rated fourth, second, fourth and 13th in those categories.
But if there is an Achilles’ heel on that side of the ball for Georgia, it’s in the area of allowing explosive plays. That was evident against Florida this past Saturday. The Gators completed a 41-yard pass against heralded cornerback Kelee Ringo and a 78-yard touchdown on a busted coverage by freshman safety Malaki Starks.
Ringo, a third-year sophomore and star of Georgia’s national championship win over Alabama last January, has been the victim of a surprising number of such plays this season.
“Well, when you play the position he plays, that’s the only thing you notice,” Smart said in defense of his star corner. “You don’t notice the 70, 80 other plays that he’s in phase, and he covers somebody and he does a nice job. He’s done a good job this year. He’s big, he’s fast, he can press people.”
It doesn’t help that Georgia is going to be without one of its best defensive players for Saturday’s contest. Senior outside linebacker Nolan Smith suffered a torn pectoral muscle in the Bulldogs’ 42-20 win over Florida and was ruled out for the season Tuesday.
Smith’s loss is somewhat mitigated by the return of defensive tackle Jalen Carter. The 6-4, 300-pound junior sat out for four weeks with an MCL sprain. He returned to play third downs against the Gators and registered four quarterback pressures while playing only 20 snaps.
“Athletic, disruptive, he’s great on third downs, rushing the passer,” Heupel said of Carter. “He’s explosive and dynamic and changes the way the game’s played on normal downs, too.”
This much is certain: Neither team is intimidated. Colliding as a No. 1 team versus a No. 2 team for the first time in the 93-year history of Sanford Stadium, each squad is eager to prove theirs is a better way.
“It is a great challenge for us,” said Georgia nose guard Zion Logue, a junior from Lebanon, Tenn. “The tempo, we are not going to let that affect us. We are going to play our game and stick to the things we have been taught all season and just play football.”
Said Smart of his secondary, specifically: “We’re excited to see them go compete. I think they’ve gotten better each and every week, grown some depth in the secondary playing some other guys. I’m looking forward to the opportunity. I mean, one thing is for sure, they’re going to get to cover. They’re going to find out, because there’s no hiding anybody when you play these guys.”
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