Virginia Tech Hokies

Tennessee Football Still Has Serious Concerns Despite Vols' 45-24 Win Over Virginia Tech

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

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Tennessee football emerged victorious with a 45-24 win over the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Battle at Bristol. But the Volunteers still have major concerns.

We can start with the positives. Bob Shoop has made his money so far as the new Tennessee football defensive coordinator with his in-game adjustments.

Joshua Dobbs finally showed flashes as the playmaker Vols fans have needed him to be.

Butch Jones an Mike DeBord have serious playmakers at wide receiver with Josh Malone once again making a big play and Jauan Jennings catching a nice fade pattern.

And Jalen Hurd is still a workhorse.

But those things alone won’t carry the Vols through the SEC season. Sure, they may have beaten Justin Fuente’s Virginia Tech Hokies 45-24, but the Hokies spotted them the blowout. They fumbled the ball five times in the game, and the Vols had nothing to do with four of them.

The Hokies still out-gained the Vols with 400 yards of total offense to only 330 for them. That’s the second week in a row this offense was out-gained.

So let’s start with concerns on defense.

The defensive line’s play was underwhelming, to say the least. Sure, they looked a lot better after the first quarter. But that’s because Shoop cheated up the nickelback every time to help the linebackers, forcing the Hokies to account for more rushers.

Given how hyped up Tennessee’s defensive line was at the start of the season, that should not have been necessary. The idea would be that they don’t need any help up front.

Meanwhile, the secondary hasn’t really been tested yet, so we’re leaving them alone.

However, the linebackers are a concern. Once again, Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Darrin Kirkland Jr. have no depth. Colton Jumper was a disaster every time he spelled Kirkland.

And with Kirkland dinged up now, the Vols could be in even bigger trouble.

Now we go to the offense.

Joshua Dobbs made lots of nice plays, but he still has about two questionable decisions a game. And his accuracy still comes and goes.

However, that could be due to the biggest concern on the unit: the offensive line. DeBord appears to have finally found his rotation with Dylan Wiesman at center. But that makes this unit much thinner than we though it would be with four starters back.

Drew Richmond is struggling at left tackle as a freshman, and the Vols are seriously missing Chance Hall.

Meanwhile, if Coleman Thomas can’t be useful at center, the Vols are extremely thin there. Right now, the rotation is in decent shape. But the depth is a major problem.

So the Vols are thin now at linebacker and offensive line, and their defensive line is yet to reach this year’s expectations.

These are all issues they need to fix in two weeks. In fact, they need to fix them this week. The Vols are about to face a dangerous Ohio Bobcats team that just beat the Kansas Jayhawks and also runs misdirection and option plays all game.

So there is no breather for this defense.