Simulated Gameday Experience

Ole Miss 42, Tennessee 17

Yes, there were all sorts of distractions in Knoxville this week (possibly consisting of pellet guns, arrests, and – of all things – a Prius.  Yes, a Prius.  What the hell, y’all?), but that’s no excuse for getting shellacked in Oxford.  The Volunteers got outplayed and partially outschemed against the Rebels, and that’s in part to just how wantonly destructive Dexter McCluster was on Saturday.

Words can’t really describe how dangerous he was, but playing with a defense missing approximately 12 guys in the linebacker corps – among other things, both the first-string and second-string MLBs are out for the season – is going to make it damn difficult to stop a guy that Houston Nutt is determined to get to 1,500 overall yards from scrimmage in about half a season.  McCluster seems pretty motivated to get there himself; he had eight (!) rushes of over 15 yards yesterday, including a backbreaking 71-yard TD run early in the fourth quarter to kill whatever little chance existed of a Tennessee comeback.  McCluster dominated the game on the ground, and Tennessee was helpless to stop him.

The good news for Tennessee’s defense is that they were able to hold the rest of the offense in check; of course, “the rest of the offense” consists of Jevan Snead going for 131 yards through the air (38 of which were to McCluster) and mildly effective runs.  It’s not exactly something I’d attribute as a success given how badly McCluster ran over the rest of the defense, but it counts.

When this game is coupled with the Auburn game, we have a couple of data points on how Monte Kiffin deals with the Malzahn-esque spread, and those data points aren’t flattering.  Auburn more or less had their way with Tennessee for over half the game, and Ole Miss …well, Ole Miss had McCluster, which apparently was plenty enough.  It’s a difficult attack to counter, as it relies on misdirection, speed, and shiftiness – both in playcalling and execution.  Quite frankly, I’ve never understood the Ole Miss (prior Arkansas) offense as Houston Nutt calls plays; it just comes off as this random mess of plays that somehow works.  I can understand why Monte would have issues defending it, but quite frankly he doesn’t have a lot of experience seeing it or dealing with it; I can see him getting good at going against it come next season, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Mind you, the best possible thing to happen to Tennessee is every other team in the SEC to decide to try this against Tennessee; nobody else really knows how to run that offense and the Vols would get plenty of practice going against it.

As far as Tennessee’s offense goes, it was a lackluster but not necessarily damning effort.  Crompton’s 20-for-37 effort was okay, but Tennessee was feast or famine on offense for most of the first three quarters – it was either a punt or a TD.  Getting an effort that uneven is going to make it difficult, if not impossible, to beat a team when your defense is struggling.

Really, Tennessee was due for an outright dud at some point or another, and this was as good a time as any.  Walk it off and move on.  As for Ole Miss, they’ve now got the inside track on the #4 bowl bid in the SEC, and good for them for that.

Tags: ding dong the witch is dead, make it stop, Tennessee Vols, weekly reflections