JD PicKell: Evaluating the strength, weakness of Tennessee offense

Tennessee’s offense was one of the best in the country once Hendon Hooker took over quarterback duties. With him back in the fold, On3’s JD PicKell believes the Volunteers can produce at a similar level this coming season.

Over on the On3 YouTube channel, he broke down the Vols offense in full, from quarterback to offensive line to the wide receiver group. Check out his breakdown below.

First, on Hooker: “They got Hendon Hooker back. Who — unless you’ve been living under a rock — you know who Hendon Hooker is. Returning quarterback for Tennessee. A dark horse Heisman candidate for a lot of people. He only threw three interceptions against 31 touchdowns a year ago. Really efficient with the football. Did a great job keeping it out of harm’s way as Tennessee’s offense soared. They were scoring 38 points a game. Anytime you’re scoring close to 40 a game you got a chance to win a lot of football games and Tennessee did just that.”

Hooker also got his leading receiver and rusher back to give UT plenty of depth among playmakers.

“Next, you got Cedric Tillman coming back. 12 touchdowns, over a thousand yards receiving. He’s gonna probably pick up a little bit more of the load, if that’s possible, since Velus Jones has left for the NFL. But you also got Bru McCoy, who was at one point in time a really highly touted recruit. Transfers from USC to Tennessee. They’re gonna look to him to also make up for some of that production. On top of that, you got your leading rusher back in Jabari Small. So there’s a lot of good things trending for Tennessee.”

But if the Vols can’t open holes for Small or protect Hooker, none of that returning talent will matter much.

“One of the hinge position groups for Tennessee that I’m looking at is the offensive line. The good news: you got four of five returning. So you have some continuity there. Another year to get on the same page, to sync up. The bad news is Tennessee wasn’t great in pass protection last year. Needless to say, you gotta keep Hendon Hooker upright. They’re going to go as far as Hendon Hooker is allowed to take them. But he can’t throw the football if he’s laying down. That’s a sack.”

They have to improve their numbers from 2021, where they allowed far too much pressure on the quarterback, according to JD PicKell

“So last year, they allowed 11% of the dropbacks to end up being sacks. That’s really bad, folks. You gotta protect the quarterback. Especially in the SEC, with all of the freak shows you have in the front seven in this conference. Gotta be able to protect Hendon Hooker.”