It began inauspiciously on the legs of Florida backup quarterback Tyler Murphy.
Nearly two months later, the end finally arrived with a riveting ground performance from Auburn’s Nick Marshall — but not before South Alabama’s Ross Metheny, South Carolina’s Connor Shaw and Missouri’s Maty Mauk took their own shots along the way.
As the 2013 season progressed, the running quarterback quickly became a glaring weakness for the Tennessee defense, which surrendered historic rushing days to these aforementioned signal callers and thus spent most of the offseason clamoring for more team speed.
But with Utah State’s dual-threat prodigy Chuckie Keeton abruptly greeting the Volunteers in Sunday’s 2014 season opener, UT won’t have the luxury of a trial run in determining if their offseason pleas have indeed come true.
“We’ll find out in a hurry,” Vols head coach Butch Jones said at Tuesday’s press luncheon. “I’d like to think we’re much more athletic on the defensive side of the ball. We have improved our team speed, but to simulate Chuckie Keeton in practice is a challenge in and of itself.”
In 12 games last season, opposing quarterbacks scampered for more than six yards a carry — 701 yards on 115 attempts — and punched in eight ground scores against defensive coordinator John Jancek’s defense.
Two signal callers torched UT’s defense to the tune of 100-yard rushing days.
Another turned to his legs for a late game-winning touchdown.
So in trying to avoid a similar performance from the Heisman Trophy candidate Keeton, Jones and company are pulling out all the stops to try and emulate the Aggies signal caller, who’s rushed for 860 yards and 10 touchdowns in his last 19 contests.
“It will be Joshua Dobbs at times, you may even see Evan Berry back there and you may even see Alton Howard,” Jones offered up as potential Keeton clones for the Vols’ scout team. “The great thing is we have a Joshua Dobbs package with a lot of these that they do. We have an Alton Howard package as well. So again, there will be some carry over where we are not inventing anything new.”
The Curt comeback: After missing the majority of recent football activities — most notably the Aug. 16 open practice — with a sprained right ankle, defensive end/ linebacker Curt Maggitt was pegged as a ‘full-go’ for Sunday’s season opener.
And with it being nearly two years since the redshirt junior last meaningfully graced the Neyland Stadium grass — Maggitt tore his ACL on Nov. 10, 2012, during an overtime loss to Missouri — Jones is anxious to finally implement the junior’s defensive versatility.
“We’ll move him around,” Jones said. “We’ll ask a lot from him from playing outside linebacker to being down (on the line). Again, he adds a whole other element to our defense, and we are going to need that.
“Even though he hasn’t played in a year, that leadership intangibles that he brings — the calmness, the energy level — now to have that on the field is going to be extremely beneficial for us defensively.”
‘Consistent’ Cam thriving on special teams: Despite having all three punt returners — running back Devrin Young, wide receiver Jacob Carter and safety Devaun Swafford — back from last season, Jones opted for a fresh face on special teams as cornerback Cameron Sutton is listed as the top punt returner on UT’s Week 1 depth chart.
“He’s been consistent every time he’s gone back,” Jones said. “He consistently catches the football. I’ll still say it, I think that’s one of the hardest jobs in all of sports is to catch a punt — with 40 yards over four-second hang time and nine or 10 guys running down field trying to tackle you.
“And the concentration involved to be able to catch that punt, making good decisions with the football. And so he’s just had a very high level of consistency each day.”
Secondary still shuffling: Even though UT is expected to line up primarily in a 4-2-5 defensive scheme this season, Monday’s depth chart was released with the Vols in a 4-3 set.
This maneuver puts Justin Coleman at the cornerback position, but when UT does ultimately shift to the 4-2-5, the senior is projected to slide to nickel — leaving one cornerback spot still up for grabs.
On Tuesday, that particular battle, which has been between freshman Emmanuel Moseley and redshirt sophomore Michael Williams all fall, remained incomplete.
“Right now, we will wait and see,” Jones said. “Both of them are basically 1A and 1B, and we’re going to let them competitively sort it out this week of preparation.”
