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Tennessee Football: 5 Vols Who Have to Improve Dramatically As SEC Play Begins
Sep 1, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive back Todd Kelly Jr. (24) (right) and linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin (21) talk after their win against Appalachian State Mountaineers. Kelly was ejected in the first half at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 20-13. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Tennessee football is 3-0 beginning Southeastern Conference play, but they have won ugly. Here are five Volunteers who need to improve dramatically.
There are plenty of culprits for the ugly Tennessee football start to the 2016 season. After all, the Vols are 3-0 and needed overtime to beat a Sun Belt team and also barely beat a MAC team.
There have been some players who deserve credit for the way the team has played to this point, including Joshua Dobbs, Josh Malone, and Jalen Hurd.
And there are also quite a few players who have dramatically under-achieved when you consider the expectations they had coming into this season.
Still, the team is 3-0. And they are now getting ready to begin the gauntlet of their season. SEC play begins next Saturday with the Florida Gators. The Vols follow that with Georgia, Texas A&M, and Alabama.
Now, with Cameron Sutton out and Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Darrin Kirkland Jr. hurt, Tennessee needs some dramatic improvement from other players on its roster.
Yes, we are about to do what you could call a variation of a blame pie. After all, certain Vols have fallen grossly short of meeting expectations to this point.
To be fair, when we name these guys, we will only name people we truly believe can play better. Calling out Colton Jumper, for instance, would be drastically unreasonable.
He already has limitations on what he can do.
And before we start, we are also going to call out the coaches. Butch Jones and Mike DeBord have got to get more creative on offense. Meanwhile, Bob Shoop can’t keep allowing one terrible quarter a game. Yes, the adjustments are nice. But the preparation counts for something.
Anyway, onto the players.
Here are the five Tennessee football players who have got to improve dramatically if the Vols are to compete in the SEC.
Sep 17, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view during the first half of the game between the Ohio Bobcats and Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Drew RIchmond
Offensive Lineman, Freshman
We are going to be fair to Drew Richmond and put him here at No. 5, mainly because he is a freshmen who had to face two straight experienced, talented, and complex front sevens while playing blindside tackle to open his Tennessee football career.
However, as a five-star recruit who has had a year to practice with the Vols, he should be looking much better to this point.
His play forced Butch Jones and Mike DeBord to bench him against the Ohio Bobcats. The 6’5″ 301-pound freshman has no excuse for that.
Sure, he doesn’t have a lot of experience. And yes, his lack of ability to understand schemes is why he took a redshirt last year. But the coaching staff all seemed to imply that he had figured everything out and took major strides beginning last December.
All the hype had Vols fans everywhere psyched to see him live up to his five-star potential at the start of this year. It hasn’t happened.
In fact, Richmond has looked horrible so far. Now again, this is early, and he’s inexperienced. So we are giving him a break. But with Chance Hall still trying to get healthy and other issues on the offensive line, the Vols need Richmond to play a lot better.
Otherwise, Tennessee football will be in trouble during SEC play.
Sep 10, 2016; Bristol, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Joshua Dobbs (11) scrambles out of the pocket during the first half against the Virginia Tech Hokies at Bristol Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
To be fair again, Drew Richmond is a big reason for Joshua Dobbs struggling. And we are going to point out that Dobbs has nine total touchdowns on the year.
However, Dobbs is the senior quarterback, and the entire offense goes through him in Butch Jones’s and Mike DeBord’s system. As a result, he needs to step up more for Tennessee football and gets a larger share of the blame than Richmond.
Going back to the Appalachian State game, Dobbs has made some seriously questionable decisions. In that game alone, he missed wide open guys at least five times and made three ill-advised throws, one of which was intercepted. He also fumbled the ball into the end zone and was lucky that Jalen Hurd recovered it.
Against Virginia Tech, he couldn’t get any accuracy until turnovers by the Hokies gave him momentum.
Dobbs actually played well against the Ohio Bobcats, but he still missed at least three deep balls that should have been sure touchdowns. As a result, he has not been the elite playmaker we expected him to be as a senior.
Now Dobbs has not played awful. And he certainly still has made plays. But the offseason hype that he generated is just not there to this point.
Maybe this is on DeBord. Maybe it’s on the offensive line. Heck, he could just be hiding things for conference play.
But whatever the case is, the Vols need Dobbs from last year’s Georgia Bulldogs game if they are going to make a run in the SEC.
Jan 1, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive lineman Kahlil McKenzie (1) tackles Northwestern Wildcats running back Justin Jackson (21) during the first half in the 2016 Outback Bowl at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Kahlil McKenzie
Defensive Tackle, Sophomore
Yes, Kahlil McKenzie belongs on this list as well. In fact, he and Drew Richmond are somewhat in the same boat.
Both are players in the trenches who committed to the Vols as five-star members of the 2015 Tennessee football recruiting class. And both generated tons of hype going into this year.
However, there’s one big difference: McKenzie didn’t redshirt last year. He saw lots of in-game action, and going into this year he touted the fact that he got his weight down to 315 pounds.
Now, the 6’3″ sophomore should be blowing up plays and drawing comparisons to John Henderson at this point. But we have barely called his number the past three games.
Other guys up front on the Tennessee football defensive line have been leaping off the screen. That includes Kendal Vickers, Derek Barnett, Danny O’Brien, Corey Vereen, and even Shy Tuttle. Heck, we have even heard Jonathan Kongbo’s name. But McKenzie is noticeably quiet for a guy who had so many expectations.
So far, McKenzie only has four tackles, only one of which is solo. He does have a sack, a forced fumble, and a pass broken up. But the sack is his only tackle for a loss.
Against the Ohio Bobcats, McKenzie showed a decent bit of improvement, but he was playing against a team that is drastically weak on the offensive line. And he had a ton of help from the play on the ends.
So McKenzie needs to develop more into a superstar role. He is too great to be this quiet so far. Maybe he’ll be like Barnett and save his greatness for SEC games. We’re about to fin
Coleman Thomas
Offensive Tackle, Junior
When you blame an offensive line for not living up to expectations, there are usually multiple guys to blame on the unit. The same has mostly held true for the 2016 Tennessee football team given the fact that we have already named Drew Richmond.
But in reality, only one player stands out for being noticeably bad, and that player is Coleman Thomas.
Thomas entered this season as a fan-favorite due to his toughness, his development down the stretch last year, and his versatility due to his willingness to play multiple positions, either tackle or center.
However, after two games at center, he was atrocious. Thomas looked nothing like the player last year, missing easy blocks, getting run over, and committing far too many penalties.
Then, in a desperate move, Butch Jones and Mike DeBord moved him over to tackle while putting Dylan Wiesman at center under the theory that Drew Richmond needed to be benched. Thomas then, inexplicably, looked even worse.
The 6’5″ 301-pound junior was the biggest reason for the Vols’ struggles on offense against the Ohio Bobcats, as he managed to kill at least two Tennessee football drives through terrible play.
His play so far is inexplicable, but the Vols can’t cut bait with him given Chance Hall’s injury. They need to hold out faith that he will at some point hit the level he was at last year. Maybe SEC play is where he will find himself.
Fortunately for him, though, and surprisingly, he is not the most disappointing player on the Vols through the first three games.
Sep 17, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive back Todd Kelly Jr. (24) tackles Ohio Bobcats tight end Mason Morgan (86) during the first half at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Todd Kelly Jr.
Safety, Junior
Going into the 2016 season, we predicted all year that Todd Kelly Jr. would be a breakout star in Bob Shoop’s system. Through five starting games as a freshman and sophomore, he managed to pull away five interceptions.
After being recruited as a four-star legacy player who patiently waited his turn and kept being hyped up, we all expected Kelly to be a superstar safety on the level of Ed Reed and Eric Berry.
Through three games, that has not been the case for the 5’11” 208-pound junior.
People wanted to eviscerate Emmanuel Moseley for his play on Saturday against the Ohio Bobcats after Cameron Sutton got hurt. But every mistake he may have made was compounded because Kelly provided no safety help. In fact, most of the time, the fault lied more than Kelly.
After all, Moseley tried to cheat up a bit expecting safety help, and Kelly wasn’t there. He also overplayed an easy interception at one point.
Through three games, he only has 17 tackles and no interceptions. He did force a fumble, but he needs to be much more of a playmaker than he has been.
For instance, Kelly has a huge responsibility as a safety to be able to make plays on misdirection plays and keep players in the backfield on those types of offenses from getting into open space.
However, his name has barely been called in that regard. And while Bob Shoop has made great adjustments, Kelly’s lack of play has allowed offenses to stay on the field.
It’s early, and Kelly could improve. But so far, in his first full season starting, he has yet to live up to his hype.
That can’t be the case in SEC play.
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