After giving up 535 rushing yards and over 600 yards of total offense in their season opener, all pressure is not on the Vols’ defense. While several fans have started to hit the panic button, the coaches haven’t done so just yet.

What the Vols faced in their opener against the Yellow Jackets, they likely won’t see again this season.

The Yellow Jackets ran the ball on 86 of their 96 plays and completely controlled the time of possession over the course of the game.

The triple-option presented an unusual task, and there’s still optimism around the team on how they’ll prepare against offenses they have become more adapt to playing against in recent memory.

“I wouldn’t make too many judgements based on that one game,” Shoop said. “Wait until we get into a more traditional game.”

A major issue that was pointed out after Monday’s game was the lack of rotation on the defensive front. Each of the starters saw an abnormally high amount of snaps, only being relieved for a few snaps throughout the game.

Defensive line coach Brady Hoke stated all summer that the defensive line wanted to rotate up to 10 players, but they weren’t ready to in the first game.

“Sometimes the game dictates, sometimes the situation dictates,” Hoke said. “If we can play more we will play more, but the objective is to win the game having your best players out there.”

Kahlil McKenzie played the most snaps on the defensive front, totaling 85 snaps of a possible 96 plays.

“That’s a lot for a big boy,” Hoke said.

Another adjustment the Vols defensive line made against the Yellow Jackets was their distance off the ball. The defensive linemen were seen a full yard off the ball on some snaps.

This made the Vols more vulnerable on dives and quarterback runs up the middle, but it helped the defensive linemen deal with the cut-blocking that the Yellow Jackets do.

“It was part of the reason it helped versus the cut-block,” Hoke said. “I thought they played the cut-block pretty well.”

Saturday’s matchup against the Indiana St. Sycamores should help in that department.

If the team is able to get more lineman in on defense against the Sycamores, they could have a deeper rotation upfront before there matchup against Florida the following week.

The rotational depth only seems to be very important to the defensive line.

At linebacker, Cortez McDowell, Daniel Bituli and Colton Jumper saw a significant amount of snaps; it didn’t seem to wear them down.

“It’s not that bad. Once you get your second wind it’s not that bad,” Jumper said. “You just got to make sure you keep your mental focus.”

Starting this Saturday, the defense will be back in more of their comfort zone.

There will be no more triple-option attack and the chances are very slim that they’ll face off against another team that will run the ball on over 89 percent of their offensive snaps.

According to Coach Hoke, it was the most unique offense the team will see all year.

Now that this obstacle has been hurdled, there are no more excuses for the defense.