The Weekly 3-2-1

Tune up season is over for the Vols. It’s Florida week and we look back and ahead today with three observations, two questions and one prediction about this football team.

THREE OBSERVATIONS

1 — Who’s healthy? — The biggest question heading into Florida week is just who is healthy? The Vols saw a good chunk of their offensive firepower leave the field during the Akron game and not return.

Jabari Small went down on the first series. Cedric Tillman followed him into the locker room after a hard, low tackle in the second quarter. Lastly, freshman tailback Dylan Sampson—who scored two touchdowns in the game—got banged up in the third quarter, left and didn’t return.

Josh Heupel had no updates on the trio post game on Saturday night and it’s not likely that we’ll learn the status of the three players until later this week.

It goes without saying that the Vols need to get some good news on the injury front to be at their best against Florida. The Gators aren’t exactly limping in, but they don’t look like a team clicking on all cylinders right now after losing at home to Kentucky in Week Two and then really struggling with South Florida this past week.

Hendon Hooker didn’t slow down much, if at all, with Tillman out but that was against Akron, not Florida. Tillman is by far the Vols’ most experienced receiver and one of the most proven playmakers in the SEC.

Running back depth was already an issue that had been on the minds of a lot of fans since the start of fall camp. With Small and Sampson both dinged up the Vols finished Saturday’s game with two scholarship running backs available; Jaylen Wright and Justin Williams-Thomas.

The availability of those three players is going to be the biggest topic of the week.

2 — Ok, Akron was not very good, but it’s still worth nothing that… — Man, the offense was really humming at times on Saturday night. Tennessee rolled up 676 yards of total offense and really it could have been a lot more. The Vols had 416 at the half.

I like how Heupel manages garbage time in those situations. He’ll empty the bench, as he started doing in the third quarter against the Zips, but he won’t really change his style of play.

He’ll maybe take his foot off the gas a little as far as tempo, but he doesn’t stop running his offense.

That’s why we got to see Joe Milton come in and complete 4-of-5 passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns and once again tantalize fans with that bazooka he’s carrying around as a right arm.

Jalin Hyatt got a chance to show his speed at wideout. He’s a real home run hitter who just needs a crease and he’s gone. He showed that on the one TD where he turned a ‘ho-hum, nothing to see here slant’ into a 48 yard touchdown.

I don’t think the offense is peaking in week three, but they’re playing at a pretty high level. Now they need to be healthy this week.

3 — I think this defense has a chance to be sneaky good — Clearly, the Vols haven’t played any high powered offenses yet and had the benefit of playing against Pitt’s back-up quarterback after they knocked Kaden Slovis out of the game.

With that said, they look improved. In fairness, ‘improved’ covers a lot of ground given how bad they were at times last year, especially in the bowl game.

No, they’re not perfect, but they’re doing some good things. I think everyone would like to see a little better play in the secondary but I don’t think they’re giving up more yards passing this season than anyone in the league like they did last fall.

The pass rush is legitimately better and it’s not always having to come from a blitz. Now, Tim Banks certainly hasn’t been shy about dialing up some pressure packages but Byron Young and Tyler Baron have both flashed at times the way fans had hoped that they would.

The real tests for this group are down the road but I think that they’re going to be at least an average SEC defense this fall, which is a pretty big step after last season.

TWO QUESTIONS

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SAY ABOUT HOOKER?

The Vols’ quarterback is mostly so steady that it’s boring to talk about because all you’re doing is stating the obvious.

He’s also spoiling a lot of people by setting the bar so high. I mean, I’m thinking on Saturday night that he’s missed a couple of throws and isn’t playing that great, then you look at the stat sheet in the third quarter and he’s 14-of-18 for 298 yards and a couple of touchdowns.

Hooker has thrown for 844 yards and six touchdowns in three games. Those numbers could be way more if Heupel wanted them to.

In 16 career games at Tennessee Hooker has now 37 touchdowns and three interceptions.

The Vols need to get some guys healthy to be at their best on Saturday, but no matter who’s available they’ll have a shot because of Hooker.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE FLORIDA MEMORY

You mean besides driving back to Orlando from Gainesville with Austin Price in desperate search of food after watching Butch Jones’ team give up an incredible Hail Mary to Felipe Franks?

I’ll go with 2004, the James Wilhoit redemption kick.

It’s a good memory because I had gotten to know James and his family some and hated the thought of him being a goat for a missed extra point. So I felt great to see him nail the 50 yard game winner, but that’s not the highlight.

If you’ll recall, Florida had the game wrapped up but gave Tennessee a huge helping hand with a personal foul penalty on the kickoff after Wilhoit’s miss. Florida had to punt it back to Tennessee with a little under a minute left, and that 15 yards came in handy for the Vols.

So, I’m in the elevator heading down for interviews after Wilhoit’s kick and end up sharing the elevator with a couple of people, one of whom was Florida athletic Jeremy Foley. Who was hot. I mean steaming, presumably about the way the game ended. Always gives me a chuckle.

ONE PREDICTION

VOLS WIN THIS WEEK

I felt this way in the preseason and I feel this way now, even with the injury issues lingering around this team.

Tennessee wins on Saturday. The Vols are so much better at quarterback that it’s really not close and the difference at that position could be the difference in the game on Saturday.

The last time Tennessee won this game they had a competent quarterback in Josh Dobbs.

When it was last a competitive series approximately 20 years ago the Vols also had competent quarterbacks, like Casey Clausen and Erik Ainge.

I’m not sure that Tennessee is the 11th best team in the nation, but I think they’re considerably better than Florida right now.