Greg McElroy concerned by Tennessee’s slow start this season

Tennessee is 2-0 to to the start the season, averaging 39.5 points per game while giving up 13 points in each contest. But its slow start against Austin Peay slow start has caused some people raise a level of concern, including ESPN analyst Greg McElroy.

The former Alabama quarterback was asked about the Volunteers on the Always College Football with Greg McElroy and whether that beginning is actual cause for concern or not.

“When we think about what Tennessee’s been the last couple years, so much of their offensive success comes on the downfield passing attack,” McElroy said. “They’re going to stretch it vertical. They’re going to take their shots. They’re going to be aggressive. They’re going to to have unbelievable speed at wide receiver that’s going to get behind the defense and that’s going to soften you up with the safeties. Now you’re going to be able to run the football and then they’re going to spread you out wide and then (when) they try to take away the run, they’re going to pitch it out wide. Then when you pitch it out wide on the short stuff, they’re going to throw it over your head.”

The first half of Tennessee’s game versus Austin Peay was not pretty. The two teams were tied 6 with under a minute left and the Volunteers didn’t hold a lead until they scored a touchdown with 15 seconds left.

Tennessee made big adjustments in the second half to pull away from the Governors to win 30-13, but its poor start and first half was far from ideal. Austin Peay had the football nearly double the amount of time as the Volunteers did.

McElroy puts a lot on the onus on Joe Milton, who was only 1 of 7 for 11 yards passing the football in the first quarter and struggled with accuracy throughout the game.

“A lot of this offense is going to be predicated on whether or not they can beat you over the top and hit big plays,” McElroy said. “So far, Joe Milton has not really looked super accurate on the downfield stuff. He was 2 of 11 on passes that were thrown more than 10 yards downfield. One was the touchdown pass to Ramel Keyton and the other was a 20-yard in breaker to Bru McCoy, who had to make a sliding catch I might add on the throw because it was a little low. So a lot of what they did this past week were throws at the line of scrimmage. Now Joe Milton got, the numbers weren’t terrible at all, because he was 12 of 13 on passes thrown behind the line of scrimmage.”

Milton finished the game with a solid overall stat line of 228 passing yards, two touchdowns on 21-for-33 passing. But he needs to be better if Tennessee wants to reach the heights it sought last year.

“If they’re going to become the offense that they were a year ago, if they’re going to become the offense that I think they can ultimately become, he’s got to be better on the downfield passes,” McElroy said. “He’s got to be better on the deep intermediates. And he’s going to have to stretch the field and not have the long foul balls that we’ve seen in the first couple weeks of the season.”