Vols coach confirms that Tennessee’s coaching staff did exactly what fans were hoping after the loss to Ohio State in playoff game
A couple of things were clear after Tennessee’s 42-17 loss to Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff last season. First, it was obvious that the Vols needed more elite talent to truly compete for a national championship.Second, their offense had to evolve. So far in 2025, the Vols’ offense has […]
A couple of things were clear after Tennessee’s 42-17 loss to Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff last season.
First, it was obvious that the Vols needed more elite talent to truly compete for a national championship.
Second, their offense had to evolve.
So far in 2025, the Vols’ offense has looked more dynamic than it did the last two seasons.
That’s not by accident — Tennessee wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope confirmed on Tuesday that UT’s coaching staff left that Ohio State game knowing the program had to evolve offensively.
“Last season, we left the playoffs and as an offensive staff, man, we felt like we got to evolve,” explained Pope. “We got to go seek and learn and get some different things. We had to take accountability and look in the mirror as coaches. And I think we did that with the things that we’re showing on offense. It’s completely foreign to what Tennessee’s offenses has looked like here so far.
“I think the other part of that is I think the players, they wanted that. They wanted some more concepts, route patterns, route dips, like whatever. But I think they gotta take accountability and be able to master that and handle the workload and the capacity. And I think those two things had married and now we’re in a really good spot. Like the creativity, you can go get to anything. You can move guys in different spots. Braylon Staley’s playing outside. Mike [Matthews] is playing slot. Chris [Brazzell] is playing slot. I think that just helps you as an offense, not only be cohesive, but you’re multiple and it’s hard for defenses to like pick one spot and guard one concept and guard one guy. It just helps us stay multiple.”
Tennessee is mixing up its looks and introducing new plays
Not only is Tennessee introducing new looks and concepts in 2025, they’re using more pro style concepts than they have in the past.
Film analyst Brooks Austin broke down the film from Tennessee’s narrow loss to Georgia and he pointed out that UT is now using some bunch formations as well as other pro style concepts.
“Any draft analyst that says Tennessee’s offense is not translatable to the NFL, they didn’t watch them this year,” said Austin.
Former Vols quarterback Jarrett Guarantano pointed out earlier this month that Tennessee used one of Tom Brady’s favorite plays in the Vols’ win against Syracuse.
It doesn’t get more pro style than that.
The only way that a coaching staff can have staying power in college football is if they’re willing to constantly evolve. It’s why Nick Saban was dominant for so long at Alabama. And it’s why Kirby Smart has managed to keep things going at Georgia during a tumultuous time for the sport.
Pope’s admission that Tennessee’s coaches left the Ohio State game immediately knowing that the offense needed some major tweaks moving forward is a great sign for the health of the UT football program under Josh Heupel.
Not every play is going to work. There will be games for the Vols where the offense isn’t hitting on all cylinders for whatever reason — that’s the human element of the sport. But Tennessee is doing what good teams do — they’re figuring out why they failed on college football’s biggest stage last season and working overtime to fix those issues in 2025.
And so far, it looks like the issues have been fixed. The Vols’ offense was dynamic against Georgia (41 points against the Bulldogs is quite impressive). There isn’t a better defensive staff in college football right now than the one in Athens. If Tennessee’s offense can put up points against Georgia, they can put up points against anyone.
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