Nov. 19
By Jimmy Hyams
Tennessee began this season with 14 scholarship offensive line.
It wounded up with four in the fourth quarter against LSU.
It’s gotten so bad up front, the Vols have played four freshmen on the line at the same time, burned two redshirts and used walk-on Joe Keeler in the second half of a 30-10 loss Saturday night to LSU in Neyland Stadium.
Three offensive tackles who have started this season weren’t available due to injuries.
“We’ve been hit pretty hard there this year,’’ said Tennessee interim coach Brady Hoke. “They work very hard. They want to be good. They want to do it right.’’
Yes they do, but not much has gone right for a UT team still looking for an SEC win.
Tennessee tumbled to 4-7, 0-7 in SEC play. The Vols are in danger of their first-ever eight-loss season and first ever winless league campaign. Only a win over Vanderbilt this Saturday would allow UT to avoid those dubious distinctions.
Saturday night was a classic case of when it rains, it pours. And it poured on Tennessee – literally.
A windy, rainstorm knocked out some of the stadium lights to start the second half, then LSU applied the knockout punch, vaulting over the Vols by 20 points.
LSU ran its record to 8-3, capturing five of its last six games.
Tennessee went toe-to-toe with LSU and coach Ed Orgeron – a former UT assistant – for most of the first half. But fumbled punts and fourth-down failures doomed any chance the Vols had as about 70,000 braved the pending elements.
Hoke – replacing the fired Butch Jones – had his team playing with energy early. But two fumbled punts by the usually sure-handed Marquez Callaway set LSU up at the UT 15 and 19, resulting in 10 easy Tiger points.
In fact, LSU had touchdown drives of 19 and 21 yards, a 2-yard march for a field goal and 153 total yards on five scores.
In the second half, Hoke did something only an interim coach would do – he went for it on fourth-and-inches from his own 21-yard line. Jarrett Guarantano’s quarterback sneak fell inches short and LSU converted that into a touchdown to account for the final score of the game.
“We wanted to steal a possession,’’ Hoke said of his gamble. “You’ve got to get it on fourth-and-1.’’
Tennessee senior tight end Ethan Wolf appreciated Hoke rolling the dice.
“We want coach to have faith in us as an offense,’’ Wolf said. “I’ll never be disappointed in a coach telling us to go for it on fourth down. The ones we didn’t get are completely on us.’’
Wolf wasn’t disappointed in his coach, but he might have been disappointed in the way the second half started. A driving rain made it hard to see anything on the field from the press box. It wasn’t a lot easier from the sideline.
“It was literally coming down so hard,’’ Hoke said, “I couldn’t see the guys on the field.’’
Wolf, who is on the kick return team, said the conditions were brutal.
“It was like somebody dumped a gallon of water in your face,’’ Wolf said. “The rain was coming down like crazy.’’
Wolf said he didn’t notice the lights being out due to the heavy downpour.
LSU’s kickoff sliced through the Vols and rolled to about the 3-yard line, where UT recovered. LSU held, forced a punt to midfield, then the Tigers punched it in for a 23-10 lead. The Vols never got back in the game.
“It was huge,’’ Hoke said of the momentum shift.
But Hoke said he and Orgeron agreed to play on rather than delay the second half kickoff.
Although LSU led 10-3 late in the first half, the Vols had actually outplayed the No. 21 ranked team in the country, holding a 101-41 edge in total yards. But LSU zipped 61 yards on three plays to take a 17-3 lead.
Tennessee countered with a 46-yard pass from Guarantano to Callaway to make it 17-10 at the half.
That was as close as UT would get.
Tennessee, which allowed 433 rushing yards to Missouri last week, did a decent job stopping the run as LSU had just 9 first-quarter yards. LSU would up with 200 rushing yards, but that’s a morale victory for a defense that had been allowing 257 per game.
Hoke tried to pull out all the stops. Not only did he go for it on fourth-and-inches from his 21, he went for it on fourth-and-1 at midfield late in the first quarter. He got it. The drive ended in a UT field goal.
Hoke also tried a lateral to receiver Tyler Byrd, who threw a pass downfield, but it fell incomplete.
He ran a jet sweep to a track guy who is a walk-on – Malik Elion – that went for 10 yards and a first down. At least one player wasn’t even sure Elion had been on the team all season.
But there was no getting around a decimated offensive line.
More bad news hit the team when quarterback Will McBride, who played reasonably well at Missouri in his first start as a true freshman, didn’t suit up due to a concussion. That left Guarantano as the only scholarship quarterback on the roster.
And it left Tennessee in danger of an 8-loss season.
When it rains, it pours.
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