Having already played 22 freshmen and 34 newcomers this season, Tennessee is undeniably home to one of the youngest teams in college football.
Yet, despite their youth, the Vols have also established themselves as some of the most disciplined players in the country.
Through three games, UT has committed only nine penalties for 64 yards, which ranks as the lowest number of penalty yards in the nation. Their three penalties per game also ranks first in the SEC.
“We spend a lot of time on that,” said second-year head coach Butch Jones of his team’s approach. “Our plan to win is that we can’t beat ourselves and it starts with penalties. We’ve really stressed what we call mental penalties and those are pre-snap penalties. Those are things – your focus, your concentration and your overall discipline — that a player controls and our players to this point and time have done a very good job of that. Obviously, we are going to be very challenged with the noise and the crowd going on this road this Saturday.”
Their discipline, though, will be tested once again when they travel to take on the Georgia Bulldogs this Saturday. Of the 70 players that will travel this weekend, only 11 have ever played a game inside Sanford Stadium.
“I’ve never been a part of anything like that,” Jones said, “but again that is a part of the growth and maturation of this football team as we continue to grow and develop.”
Zoning out the criticism: The groans are audible in Neyland Stadium when Justin Worley hands the ball off and quickly fakes to the open field as the defense collapses on Tennessee’s running back.
There is, however, a reason behind the senior quarterback’s limited amount of zone-read keepers in the Volunteers’ first three contests.
“So many times to the observer out there or the naked eye, you think its zone read and its not zone read,” Jones said. “A lot of times when it looks like it should be a zone-read keep, really its just the defensive end closing and making a great play and when the decision point comes it’s not there.”
During the season, Worley has only recognized a few mistakes when it comes to keeping the ball, instead of letting his backfield counterpart run with it.
“Going back to coach Jake, I could have kept it maybe three or four more times over the course of three games,” Worley said. “A lot of people don’t see the plays that I don’t have a read, I’m just handing it off. I don’t have the option to pull it every time we run the football. There might have been opportunities to run when I don’t have a read key. Some people think I can run it when I know I can’t. It’s kind of looking at the bigger picture sometimes.
“I think I’ve read them pretty well. There is occasionally going to be those here and there. It happens in practice all the time. Sometimes you get so keyed in a guy flying up field instead of crashing hard that when he does crash hard you might not be prepared for it.”
Worley has even taken criticism from the Volunteer faithful on his zone-read decisions.
“People tweet at me all the time,” Worley said. “Some people don’t understand it and they don’t see the bigger picture. They don’t see the safety flying down 10 yards and a lot of people don’t understand that I don’t have the option to pull it every play.”
