The Tennessee Vols throttled Ball State on Thursday night, easily winning 59-10 in the season-opener.

Tennessee racked up 569 total yards while scoring more than 40 points for the eighth time in just the 14th game of the Josh Heupel era.

Not much to be mad about if you're a Vols fan, right? That's what Tennessee should do against overmatched teams — dominate.

While I mostly agree with that sentiment, I think it has to be pointed out that UT and Ball State put some things on film that some of the Vols' future opponents will certainly notice.

Specifically, I think Ball State gave more talented teams the blueprint on how to beat Tennessee — at least until the Vols make the proper adjustments.

If you watched Thursday night's game, you likely noticed the Vols ran the ball more than they typically have under Heupel (51 rush attempts)

While it's a misconception that Tennessee only throws the ball under Heupel, they still ran the ball more than I expected against Ball State.

But there was a reason for that. Ball State consistently dropped extra defenders into coverage. They were determined to not get beat over the top. Instead, they wanted to force the Vols to take the underneath routes or run the ball.

"We made a personnel adjustment with what we were going to play with on the field,” said Ball State head coach Mike Neu after the game. “A lot of the night, we played with three defensive linemen, two linebackers and six defensive backs. We wanted to try and make sure in those passing situations that we forced them to throw the check down, so we had more opportunities to attack them, make more plays and try not to give up the big one."

"They’re not going to let you play zone. We knew that. We tried to play several guys and send a different group out for the next series, so if there is a one-on-one we defended the play before, we can send a different group out there."

That approach forced the Volunteers to run the ball more.

And while Tennessee rushed for 218 yards in the win, they appeared to struggle at times to consistently pick up yards on the ground (35 percent of UT's rushing yards came on four carries of 33 yards, 14 yards, 10 yards, and 21 yards).

Highly touted freshman Dylan Sampson, for example, averaged just 3.2 yards per carry on 10 attempts. As a team, the Vols averaged 4.3 yards per carry. By comparison, Tennessee averaged 5.2 yards per carry against Bowling Green in last year's season opener.

The Vols' run blocking didn't consistently generate a good push against Ball State. That's concerning against an obviously overmatched team.

A good SEC team — and I don't mean Alabama, I'm talking about a team like Kentucky — could deploy the same strategy and likely have significantly more success than Ball State did on Thursday night.

Until the Vols prove they're dangerous in the running game, I think we'll see teams try this same approach. If it falters, they'll change their game plan and load the box.

As good as quarterback Hendon Hooker has been for the Vols, the success of this team really depends on the run game. If the Vols can improve dramatically from week one to week two in run blocking, I think they can be a 10-win team.

But if they struggle again against Pittsburgh in week two, we could be looking at an eight-win team at best.

The run game will certainly be the biggest thing to watch next weekend against the Panthers.

Featured image via USA TODAY