Josh Heupel provides analysis of Tennessee offensive line play

No. 8 Tennessee, fresh off a huge win over rival Florida with ESPN’s College GameDay in town, is regrouping this weekend during a bye week before a tough trip to LSU on Oct. 8.

If the Volunteers want to extend their unbeaten start to the season on the other side of the bye they’ll need to keep leaning on a unit that has powered much of their success: the offensive line.

“Been really good at times. Obviously there’s a lot of things that we’ve got to do better,” coach Josh Heupel said.

While quarterback Hendon Hooker was sacked a season-high three times in the win against Florida, Tennessee protected him well enough to keep him from getting knocked out of a rhythm in the game.

Hooker made it count, going 22-of-28 passing for a season-high 349 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception.

And despite being chased from the pocket a number of times, Hooker also killed the Gators with his legs, rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries. Heupel credited the offensive line with making much of that possible.

“There were some things in the protection world that they did a really good job of the other night,” the second-year Vols head coach said. “There’s some things that have got to get cleaned up with everybody in our pass protections, too. The run game wasn’t as clean as it could have been, but there were some positives in the run game, too.”

Josh Heupel pleased but not fully satisfied with Tennessee offensive line play

Near the end of his answer about how his Tennessee offensive line has performed, Heupel sort of stopped himself and reviewed his own answer.

“That’s kind of a vague answer, isn’t it?” he asked aloud. “I don’t give out a grade, A, B, C, D or anything like that. There’s some things that they’ve done at a really high level, we just, we can be more consistent.”

Tennesse has given up eight sacks so far this season, a figure that puts the Vols at No. 70 nationally in sacks allowed per game. That’s not prohibitive, but it’s not elite by any means either.

The unit will get quite a test next week when it takes on LSU. The Tigers currently rank No. 24 nationally in sacks, with 11 through the first four games.

The two programs are scheduled for a noon ET kickoff on Oct. 8 in Baton Rouge, La., with a national broadcast on ESPN.