Tenn Truth
Fansided

Vols: Offensive Thoughts on Bowling Green Game

By Randy Sharber

facebooktwitterreddit

The Vols were terribly offensive in Nashville yesterday.

Tennessee put up 604 yards yesterday against Bowling Green University. The three headed orange monster of Jalen Hurd, Alvin Kamara, and Joshua Dobbs combined for an impressive 399 yards rushing.

The Vols would have had put up more yardage on the Falcons if Cam Sutton would have not had so many great punt returns. Sutton had 3 returns for 102 yards that kept giving Tennessee a short field to work with. If he fair catches those, Tennessee has another 102 yards of offense. But Sutton was on fire, and a vital part of this win.

Jalen Hurd showed Tennessee fans what I had been writing since the Spring game. He is bigger, faster and stronger than last season. That is scary if you are having to tackle this guy. Hurd started the Tennessee scoring with a touchdown right after the Falcons went down to kick a field goal on their opening drive.

Hurd ended up with 3 touchdowns and had another called back on a holding penalty. He finished the night with 123 yards on 23 carries.

Vol fans also saw the coming out party Alvin Kamara. Kamara proved to be a great complement to Hurd as he cut through the Falcon defense for 144 yards on just 15 carries. He added two touchdowns. One touchdown was an electrifying run of 56 yards that came at a crucial time as the Bowling Green kept hanging around.

Kamara’s performance was the best first game a running back playing for Tennessee had ever had. This running attack is going to be fun to watch. Third string running back John Kelly looks as if he can carry the mail as well.

And then there was Dobbs. Dobbs impresses me more every time I watch him, and I have been a Dobbs fan since I saw him play in his first Spring game at Tennessee. Joshua ran the read option flawlessly, and added 89 yards rushing. That is almost unfair when you have three guys running the ball like they did yesterday.

More from Butch Jones

As far as the passing attack yesterday, it looked sharp as well. Dobbs has improved his arm strength and accuracy since first coming to Tennessee. He has worked incredibly hard, and it shows. Dobbs was an efficient 15-22 for 205 yards through the air. Two of those completions ended up in the hands of Ethan Wolf in the end zone.

Dobbs had another touchdown throw to Von Pearson called back on a holding call. He had a qb rating of 89.9 in his first game of the season.

Dobbs did a good job of taking what the defense gave him. Bowling Green had to commit their safeties to try to stop the run, and when they did, well, Vol receivers ran free throughout their secondary. True Freshman Jauan Jennings led the way with 3 receptions for 56 yards. Josh Malone had a good game with 3 catches.

Some people got a little upset with me when I compared Ethan Wolf to Jason Whitten a few weeks back. Well tell me now what you think. Did those touchdown catches Wolf hauled in remind you of a tight end that wore the number 1 while at Tennessee? Yes, it did.

The offensive line looked good. They opened holes that they just didn’t open last season. I give this credit to new coach Mike DeBord. He has worked hard with this group, and although they are not the most intimidating bunch, they got the job done. They seemed to be getting angles on the Falcons defensive lineman and moved them out of the way.

So a very good display of offense. I said in my pre-game prediction (read previous post) Tennessee would score 48. I said the Falcons would not be able to stop the run game of Tennessee. I wrote that both Hurd and Kamara would have well over 100 yards each. So good there. I also said the Falcons would score 17. Not so good there.

Tennessee will have a much stiffer test next week against Oklahoma. The Oklahoma defense only gave up 226 to its’ Mac opponent Akron in their opener. They also held the Zips to just 3 points. Last season the Sooners defensive ends hit Vols quarterback Justin Worley more than Rocky Balboa in an Apollo Creed fight.

Coleman Thomas has been moved to center. Last season he was thrown to the wolves at right tackle and was exposed. Kyler Kerbyson was moved out there yesterday, and performed fine. But that was Bowling Green, not Oklahoma.  It will be interesting to watch what this offense comes up with for the Sooners.

More from Tenn Truth

Home/Butch Jones