Note: Film Study airs every week on WBIR-TV - Tuesday nights at 11 p.m. and Wednesday mornings at 4:30 a.m. Due to SEC rules we cannot post the video of these segments on our website but we will attempt to recreate them here through words and gifs.
Tennessee beat ETSU 59-3 for Jeremy Pruitt's first win as a head coach on Saturday.
For the second straight week the Vols started slow in the run game on offense, three of their first seven runs went for zero or negative yards but after the weather delay in the second quarter they got things going.
On the very first play coming out of the delay, the Vols ran their first "gap scheme" run of the day -Counter - with freshman Jeremy Banks.
The left side of the line blocks down, right guard Jerome Carvin pulls to kick out the end man and fullback Austin Pope leads through the hole.
Watch Trey Smith, he clears some space by just shoving his teammate Jahmir Johnson, sending him and his defender to the ground, then Smith takes care of the linebacker. Ryan Johnson and Drew Richmond seal off the backside, Carvin and Pope do their jobs and there's a nice alley created for Banks to burst through for a 15-yard gain.
All four of Tennessee's goal line touchdown runs came on Counter's gap scheme cousin... Power.
Now, let's look at Madre London's 34-yard run, the Vols longest rush of the season so far.
This looks like it's going to be an inside zone run to the right. The line is moving to the right as a unit, QB Jarrett Guarantano turns that way and London is headed that direction. The linebackers react accordingly and fly up to defend inside zone, but Guarantano turns and hands off in the opposite direction, London changes course and heads backside as designed. Tight end Dominick Wood-Anderson seals the edge, Tyler Byrd throws a key block on the outside and London is into the open field untouched.
They had a few big plays, but there's still some work to do with the run game. I'd like to see Tennessee put up a big number in the rushing category and dominate up front this week. UTEP has allowed 260 yards per game on the ground so far (against Northern Arizona and UNLV), that ranks 118th in the country.
Moving on to the passing game... the Vols connected on three passes of 50 or more yards against ETSU. They had four of those in the entire season last year. Let's take a look at one of those deep shots from the first quarter - Guarantano to Josh Palmer.
Tennessee lines up in a two tight end set and motions Josh Palmer to the top of screen where he has a one-on-one matchup on the outside. Palmer is running an out and up, a double move. To make sure the play has time to develop the Vols are in max protect - leaving everyone in to block except for the two receivers.
The corner bites on the double move and tries to jump the out route, leaving Palmer wide open down the sideline. Guarantano hits him for a 51-yard gain.
It's good to see Guarantano and Palmer finally connect on a deep ball. It seems like there were six or seven times last season when those two were inches away from hitting on a big play but just couldn't get it done.
Tennessee has one more game to tune up and fix mistakes (vs. UTEP, Saturday at noon on SEC Network) before Florida comes to town to open SEC play on September 22.
