How Tennessee's Josh Heupel might be engaging in some gamesmanship with Pittsburgh
The Tennessee Vols cruised to an easy win against Ball State in their season-opener, winning 59-10 this past Thursday night. Things will get tougher for the Vols this weekend as they travel to Pennslyvania to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers. Pittsburgh beat Tennessee 41-34 in Knoxville last season, but that's a game that could've had […]
The Tennessee Vols cruised to an easy win against Ball State in their season-opener, winning 59-10 this past Thursday night.
Things will get tougher for the Vols this weekend as they travel to Pennslyvania to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Pittsburgh beat Tennessee 41-34 in Knoxville last season, but that's a game that could've had a different outcome if Hendon Hooker would've been the starting quarterback for the Vols instead of Joe Milton.
Tennessee's offense is in a much better place in 2022, but this will still be a challenging game. Pittsburgh lost star quarterback Kenny Pickett to the NFL draft, but they replaced him with Kedon Slovis, a talented quarterback who could cause some problems for UT.
The Panthers are coming off an emotional win against West Virginia in week one. A year ago, Pittsburgh struggled after big wins (they lost to Western Michigan at home after beating Tennessee and they lost to Miami at home after beating Clemson). As a result, Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi is making sure his team is properly focused this week.
Vols head coach Josh Heupel knows that Pittsburgh will be a tough test. Partially because this will be the fourth time that Narduzzi and the Panthers have faced a Josh Heupel-led offense (twice at UCF and last season).
There's obviously plenty of familiarity there.
It appears that Heupel, knowing how tough this game could be for Tennessee, might be engaging in a bit of gamesmanship with the Panthers.
Heupel made it a point on Monday during his weekly press conference to point out how tough Pittsburgh is against the run.
There's just one problem — Pittsburgh was terrible against the run in week one against West Virginia.
The Mountaineers rushed for 190 yards against Pittsburgh. If you take away the three sacks on West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels, then the Mountaineers averaged almost seven yards per carry (6.8 yards per carry to be exact). That's obviously not ideal — especially against an explosive offensive like Tennessee's.
So why did Heupel make that comment?
I think it's because of the way Ball State played the Vols in the opener.
Ball State dropped most of their defenders into coverage and stayed committed to keeping everything in front of them. That meant Tennessee had to rely on running the ball and intermediate routes.
There's no doubt that Pittsburgh is devouring the game film from the Vols' win against Ball State. And they're likely seeing how Heupel's offense attacked the Cardinals.
It feels like Heupel is suggesting, via his comments to the media, that Tennessee will be forced to throw the ball more against Pittsburgh than they did against Ball State. It's almost like Heupel is baiting Narduzzi into playing the same defense that Ball State played.
Tennessee can game plan for that type of defensive approach. And if that's the look they get, they can focus on running the ball and setting up screens. If that works well, Pittsburgh could be forced to change its approach. At that point, the Vols would have Pittsburgh on their heels. Making in-game adjustments against an up-tempo offense can have disastrous results for a defense — we've seen plenty of confused players against Tennessee's offensive attack.
If Pittsburgh sticks with the same approach as Ball State, this entire game will come down to execution in the red zone. The Vols will likely march down the field against Pittsburgh while picking up 5 to 7 yards a play. Getting 7 points in the red zone will be key.
I think this game sets up nicely for the Vols. They're either going to run the ball at will against the Panthers, or they're going to force Pittsburgh to load the box, at which point the Vols can look to wide receivers Cedric Tillman, Bru McCoy, and Jalin Hyatt to put the game away.
This won't be an easy win for Tennessee. But it feels like a game where the Vols have the advantage, which should equal Tennessee's second win of the year.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
