Appalachian State Mountaineers

Tennessee Football: No Reason to Panic About Vols Yet

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Tennessee football gave Volunteers fans a scare with a 20-13 overtime victory over the Appalachian State Mountaineers. But there’s no reason to panic yet.

After needing a missed extra point, a missed field goal, and a fumble recovery in the end zone to beat a Sun Belt team in overtime, Tennessee football fans are likely pretty down on the Vols at this point.

After all, the entire offseason with ridiculous expectations almost came crashing down in front of them. And their Top 10 preseason appearance will likely be short-lived as well.

Still, while Vols fans do have reason to worry, they don’t need to panic just yet.

Tennessee football may have returned 20 starters, but they had a redshirt freshman starting at blindside tackle trying to defend a Top 25 rush defense. That defense in the Mountaineers runs a complex 3-4 scheme and returned six of its front seven.

As a result, Joshua Dobbs suffered uncharacteristic pressure all night.

But it wasn’t all just Richmond. Coleman Thomas had a historically bad game at center that he’s unlikely to repeat, and there were numerous uncharacteristic penalties.

However, Jalen Hurd still managed over 100 yards as the workhorse and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown, so he showed he’s still an elite running back, even if he had a fumble himself.

Meanwhile, on defense, the Vols really only gave up one touchdown drive. The first one was off a turnover by Cameron Sutton. The second one was the first drive after Jalen Reeves-Maybin was ejected for a targeting penalty.

Sure, this game provided cause for concern about the Vols, from Joshua Dobbs’s consistency and awareness to the lack of depth at linebacker.

But there were a ton of miscues that made this game close.

The offensive line will only face a 3-4 defense with real talent twice the rest of the year. Reeves-Maybin will be back to keep the linebackers together.

And Sutton won’t have such mistakes on special teams throughout the year.

Those things are enough to lose to a team that was 11-2 last year and returns everybody that matters. Scott Satterfield’s coaching makes things even more difficult.

Appalachian State has pulled off upsets before in FCS. Now, they’re in FBS, and they were much more dangerous to the Vols than they even were to Michigan back in 2007.

So there’s no reason to worry just yet Tennessee football fans. The Vols put away a solid team that could win its conference championship despite a ton of unforced mistakes and an unfortunate ejection.

Avoiding those things should fix the problems significantly. We’ll find out about that soon enough with the Battle at Bristol looming.