Marlin Lane tried to maneuver left. Jalen Hurd attempted to scamper right.
Over and over, the Volunteers’ run game did its best to penetrate the Utah State defense during Sunday’s season-opening victory over the Aggies.
The end result? Nothing too positive as Tennessee mustered just a 2.8 yard per carry average on the day.
And although UT head coach Butch Jones stressed he doesn’t buy into the concept because of the possible distorted figures, the second-year coach found an alternative route for displaying his running game frustration.
“I am more interested in realistic statistics, and that is run efficiency,” Jones said. “And I didn’t think we did a very good job there. We have to be able to run a little bit more.
“…What is the definition of an efficient run? An efficient run is four yards or more, or if it is second-and-short or third-and-short, you get the first down. Your average rush or yards per carry could be misconstrued because you could have one 80-yard run, and then the rest you are below average. But when you look at the average, it looks good.”
Either way it’s sliced, the ground game was rather ineffective. In the backfield spearheaded by Lane and the heralded freshman Hurd, UT’s ball-carrying duo struggled to break loose, combining for only 70 yards on 22 carries.
As a team, the Vols failed to produce a run longer than nine yards all evening and racked up their lowest yard per carry average since Nov. 26, 2011, — when UT averaged 2.5 yards per rush in a 10-7 loss to Kentucky.
“I’d just say hitting it and go,” Lane offered up as a solution for the ground game’s immediate improvement. “No thinking. No being hesitant. It’s just the first game, and we got that game under the belt. We are just ready for this week.”
That opportunity comes against Sun Belt foe Arkansas State — a team who allowed nearly 180 rushing yards per game in 2013 but held Montana State to less than two yards per carry in Saturday’s season opener.
Even so, Jones is somewhat encouraged that a handful of those mid-range gains will morph into back-breaking dashes as the season progress.
“When you look at it, so much of your run game is all 11 individuals working together as one,” Jones said. “There were about eight incidences where we ran the football, and we were one block away (from a big play).
“A lot of times it’s your backside cutoffs, your lineman not being on the proper landmark of the defender. Everything is moving. It’s going to where they’re gonna be. It’s the discipline, staying low with pad level. It’s not just the offensive line. It may be the tight end on a combination block. It may be the back not making his proper read. It may be the quarterback keeping it. There were a lot of single breakdowns. We are working to get that corrected.”
The Vols’ backfield did generate a pair of rushing touchdowns, but each score came with a bit of an asterisk.
On the first, UT had to dip into the wide receiving corps as Pig Howard’s end around gave the Vols their first rushing touchdown of the season. The latter ground score arrived in garbage time as Lane punched one in with UT already comfortably ahead by three scores early in the fourth quarter.
“I feel like we didn’t rush like we wanted to,” Lane said. “We didn’t get the runs that we wanted. I think we were just a little hesitant in that defense — (Utah State) shifting from an even (defense) to a bear (defense) while we were reading (the coverage).
“I just feel like we’ve got a lot of stuff to learn back there at the running back position.”
