Bruce Feldman, Stewart Mandel evaluate Tennessee's readiness to take next step in 2023

In his second year at Tennessee, coach Josh Heupel had the Volunteers on the cusp of a College Football Playoff berth. The success will leave the fans craving more, so how close is Tennessee to taking the next step in 2023?

That’s a question that Stewart Mandel and Bruce Feldman, a pair of long-time college football reporters, attempted to tackle on The Audible with Stew & Bruce podcast.

The long and short of their answer? It boils down to defense.

“I mean I don’t have any doubts about Josh Heupel as an offensive coach,” Mandel said. “I think maybe that was a particularly special offense with (Hendon) Hooker and (Jalin) Hyatt, but I think with Josh Heupel you’re always going to have a pretty powerful offense. If they want to contend and be a real, legit SEC championship contender they’re going to need to be better and more consistent on defense.”

The numbers for Tennessee on paper weren’t very good, though you can certainly make a case for that being in part due to the offense always forcing other teams to chase the game.

Tennessee finished 127th nationally in passing defense, very close to the bottom of the FBS. The Volunteers also finished 91st nationally in total defense, but a much more respectable 36th in scoring defense.

And the Volunteers also added to the bend-but-don’t break mantra by producing a lot of takeaways; Tennessee finished tied for 10th nationally in turnover margin.

Can the Tennessee defense take the next step?

One early possible indicator of a turnaround on defense came in the Orange Bowl. Typically teams play a little bit more youth than normal in bowl games, and Tennessee had some success.

“It was encouraging to see how they played in the Orange Bowl,” Mandel said. “It was really disruptive pass-rush against Cade Klubnik. Clemson, not the greatest offensive team the last couple years.”

Now, the Tigers did pile up 484 yards of offense, but they finished with just 14 points. Again, more bend but don’t break for the Volunteers.

Feldman also chimed in on the point about the Volunteers being a bit one-sided at the moment under Heupel.

“Can you be what Oklahoma has been with Lincoln Riley, where you have a top-5 national offense with like an, at best, average defenses?” Feldman pondered on the air. “Is that going to cut it in the SEC, meaning to be a top-10 team? I mean, maybe, but I don’t know if you can be more than a top-10 team. I don’t know if you can take that next step, and I think that will be the challenge for Josh Heupel and that staff there.”

Resources are there for Tennessee to take next step

One thing Tennessee definitely does have working in its favor are the resources to engineer a real run to the top of the sport.

The Volunteers flexed their NIL muscles in the 2023 recruiting class by landing star quarterback Nico Iamaleava. Can they parlay that success into recruiting some blue-chippers on the opposite side?

That might be one of the final pieces to solve the puzzle for the Vols.

“I feel like NIL collectives keep coming up on this podcast, but Spyre, the collective behind Tennessee, is also one of the better-organized, better-resourced ones out there,” Mandel said. “That certainly helped with their recruiting. You’re in a division where you’re chasing the best recruiting program in the country in Georgia, so you’re just going to have to get that elite defensive talent.

“You can’t fake defense. As your story about the NFL All-Pro team pointed out, you can find those diamonds in the rough on offense. Defense? You need those four- and five-stars if you’re going to play for SEC Championships, national championships. So that’s, to me, the almost singular issue for Tennessee going forward.”