The Film Room: South Carolina

I thought it would be interesting to take an in-depth look at some of Tennessee’s best, and maybe worst, plays, and see if we can figure out why they happened. Let’s start out with Brian Randolph’s forced fumble. It was a fantastic play that could’ve busted the game wide open. A closer look reveals that it might not have ended so well had he not made the play. Here’s the play in real time.

Now we’ll take a look at it in still shots

1. Our D-line right now is Jordan Williams at RE, Mo Couch and Malik at DT, and Bohannon at LE. Look at the explosion off of the line, sans Bohannon. Williams, Couch and Malik are already across the line of scrimmage. Great get off.

2. Bohannon decided to take a nap, and this causes problems later on in the play.

3. I absolutely cannot tell definitively  who this corner is, but I think it’s Art Evans. Take your best guess. We’ll call it him. In Wilcox’s style of D, either the corner or the safety usually has contain. Even if he doesn’t, the corner can’t let anything outside of him. Evans’ first step is backwards and towards the center of the field.

4. Poor Dontavius Sapp. I really liked him this game. He showed a lot of effort, he’s quicker than Maggitt, but he showed his green side. Austin and AJ Johnson have already made one step towards the ball. Sapp hasn’t moved yet.

5. Brian Randolph is lurking back there. Somewhere.

1. C’mon Bohannon. As my old coach used to say, did you give him money for that ride? He’s straight up and getting pushed backwards. Great play by that right tackle.

2. Notice Evans (Presumably). All his momentum is flying opposite where the ball is going. He’s had to shift his weight back across his body. This has lost him three steps, more than ample time for SC’s blockers and RB to get the edge over him.

3. Note the great surge by the D-Line, again minus Bohannon. Malik has already shed his blocker, Couch is in their backfield, and Williams is checking QB for the run and having backside help. Textbook, minus Bohannon.

4. Just wanted to note our linebackers, too. The problem with Austin Johnson isn’t his play recognition, just his speed to the corner. AJ Johnson is already on his way to the ball. Sapp still hasn’t made a move towards the ball.

5. Randolph comin’

1. Dear Lord, Bohannon.

2. Malik has recognized the play, shed his blocker, and is now in pursuit of the play. Textbook,

3. Evans is trying to gain back the ground he lost, but the damage has been done. The SC lead blocker is already at the better angle, and I’m not taking Evans over a 230+ pound fullback.

4. Poor Sapp. If he would’ve read this play, this might not be as big of a problem. But he doesn’t, and now he can’t even get over the top of Bohannon to try to make the play.

5. Brian Randolph has now started his sub 4.2 forty sprint to the ball.

1. Yikes.

2. If I’m an NFL team, I take one look at this play and draft Malik Jackson. Incredible strength, speed, and football IQ here. He scrapes down the line for  25 yards and almost makes the play.

3. Yikes.

4. AJ Johnson has now run about 30 yards and is almost to the play. This is a man you can build a defense around. Once he gets SEC angles down correctly, he could be the best LB we’ve had since Mayo.

5. He’s moving so quickly that he’s BLURRY!!!

1, 2, 3. Look at the three players near the ball. Dooley got all three of them. Yeah, we’ll lose Malik and that sucks, but there are two freshmen that are emerging as our best two young defenders. Randolph’s play was pure effort and instincts. Read your key, react. It’s that simple for him, and AJ too. Please don’t go, Malik.

4, 5. At least Sapp hasn’t given up. Give him time, and this young man will be a solid player for the Vols. No comment on Evans (Presumably).

Note: Bohannon finally got off of his man. Good for him.

This play shows a few things. Firstly, the effort is there. Secondly, we’ve got some real talent out there. Now if we can get a lot more… Randolph might be our defensive playmaker for years to come. And AJ Johnson, oh how I love thee.

Quick Screen

This is one of the most standard plays in football, yet I haven’t seen Tennessee run it well in years. It starts off well here, but falls apart towards the end. Here’s the full thing.

Let’s take a look at the stills.

1. The Vols have run this formation a lot this year. It’s a simple shotgun doubles formation, but at the bottom of the picture, the man on the line is our fullback, Ben Bartholomew. I’ve seen him run out there on an audible and just stand around on a pass play, but he has a reason on this one. Interesting use of personnel and formations by our offense to gain a mismatch.

2. This linebacker is going to blitz. Whether or not Chaney was trying to take advantage of it or if it was just a perfect play call, I’m not sure. SC is playing with one high safety right now, about 20 yards off and out of the picture.

1. Bartholomew executes a great initial block. Since he’s taking him head on, this forces the unblocked DB to pick a side. It was a great play by him to take the outside, but it does create quite the lane in the middle. That’s much better than giving him the sideline though, which I have zero doubt our guy would’ve done.

2. This kills me. I think the running back is Poole, because Marlin Lane only played one snap, but again I can’t tell for sure. He runs up to the defender and tries to cut block him. That’s fine usually, but on a quick screen, the SC defender recognizes before he even touches the RB. That just puts an extra guy in pursuit of the play. Go knock him down next time.

Edit: It is in fact Lane. This was his one play.

3. Never underestimate this throw and catch, or take it for granted. I think the past few weeks have taught us that.

1. This is where Bartholomew’s block breaks down. Yeah, it’s tough to stay on a small shifty guy like that for more than a few seconds, but really this makes the difference between a good gain and a great gain.

2. Da’Rick does a nice job of making a guy miss. When a coach calls a WR screen, he usually anticipates that his guy will make one man miss and go. Da’Rick does a great job at this. Make the catch, make the cut, get up field. 3 for 3.

3. This kills me as well. It’s like the UT linemen just released from their blocks the second the ball was thrown. The play probably wasn’t going much further, but if Bartholomew gets his block, who knows. Every offensive play, give or take a few, is designed to score. That means that if run to perfection, it will score. Unlikely? Yes. But championships demand it.

1. I know Da’Rick is not a fan favorite right now, but he refuses to go down here. The video cuts off, but it takes three defenders to take him down. Love him or hate him, he’s got talent and he’s strong as an ox.

This play is a staple in pretty much every offense, but we’ve had a lot of problems with these kinds of plays of late. It’s encouraging to see us work them in with some success.

Punt Unit

Palardy’s kicking aside, we’ve seen our special teams play skyrocket lately. Taking Devrin isn’t so dumb after all, is it? But more than the return game, our coverage on punts and kicks has been great. General Neyland used to say, “Press the kicking game, here is where the breaks are made.” This coaching staff is doing just that. This is a neat little stunt that we haven’t seen all year on the Vols’ first punt, which turned into a recovered fumble.

Let’s take a deeper look

1. Notice the two gunners lined up on the same side. This isn’t our normal punt team formation, so I’m sure it took SC a little by surprise as well. At first I thought we might try to force the returner to one side, but the tape shows a little wrinkle.

It’s a simple stunt. You see these all the time on the D-line, but what this does is give our outside gunner, Anthony Anderson, free release down the middle of the field. Justin Coleman wraps around behind him, slightly picking his man against Anderson’s. This give both of them ample space to get free.

1. Both Anderson and Coleman have now gotten the edge on their men. If practiced against, this could be stopped, but I like how Dooley and his staff pulled this out of nowhere.

2. Uh…

Here you can see how much space Ant Anderson has created, and Justin Coleman has wrapped back around his man. I think they ran this to perfection.

Anderson then gets in the returner’s face, he drops it, we recover. Look at all the orange around.

Special teams are mostly effort and desire. Everyone knows that it sucks to be on them, yet this staff has made them into a terrific squad. I think this is a testament to our coaches’ creativity, ingenuity, and their ability to get players motivated. Does the returner drop that ball if Anderson isn’t in his face? I don’t think so. See how Anderson steps at him as soon as the ball is getting there? I would like to know what he said.

Profile: AJ Johnson

This play will show you why AJ Johnson has been playing at such a high level early on in his career. His play recognition and football IQ has been superb thus far. The common definition of a player like him is, “He’s got a nose for the football.” A few Tennessee players made good plays, a couple not so much. Here’s the play.

Let’s break it down.

1. Our D-line is Ben Martin at LE, Couch & Malik at DT, and I think Marlon Walls at RE.

2. SC has come out with trips left, or three men to the strong side of the field. Sapp will roll out onto the slot man, shifting Austin and AJ over.

1. Look at AJ in this play. He immediately knows where the ball is going. Since he’s backside, he can’t just run right to the ball, but he has already put himself into position to make the play. He can literally just feel where the play is going.

2. Mo Couch gets cut blocked here. He does a good enough job to get around it, but he ends up running into Malik.

3. Malik, for all his incredible qualities, takes himself out of this one. He gets upfield too quickly, and the SC lineman just rides him into the backfield.

4. Marlon Walls make a fantastic play here. He feels the pressure trying to block him down, but he fights it and doesn’t give up his ground. Incredible strength and technique from him.

1. Walls has forced the pulling linemen to go around him, slowing this play down considerably. He’s extended the play, and created time for help to get there.

2. Sapp and Johnson get a little sucked in here. Sapp should be over the top, and Austin Johnson probably should be, too.

3. AJ gets a little too anxious here, and he almost bails out. But when he sees the cutback lane open up, he not only stays at home, but he fills the hole and makes the tackle.

4. I still love you, Malik and Mo. Happens to the best of us.

Look at the gang tackling. When you’re undersized and slower, this is how you tackle. AJ makes a great play, but look at Mo Couch and Jordan Williams sprinting to get in on it. Austin Johnson and Sapp are there, and Walls, who is the unsung hero of this play, is there. I love seeing this. Even Malik gets over there eventually. 7 of our 11 players are there.

It’s encouraging to see these plays. They all show positives that indicate where this program is headed. If anyone has any plays in particular that you might want to see, just let me know.

And Clay Travis Sucks.

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