I’ve seen a lot of criticism this season about Tennessee’s offensive play-calling.

And I truly don’t understand it.

Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle is doing most of the play-calling for Tennessee this season (though head coach Josh Heupel is still involved to some extent).

And I think he’s doing a marvelous job. It hasn’t been perfect — sometimes the defense has the perfect call, sometimes the play isn’t executed, and sometimes the other team has a guy who just makes a play (they get paid, too).

But for the most part, I think Halzle has been elite this season. He’s calling the kind of game he needs to call for Heupel’s plan (lean on the defense and chew up clock) to work. You can argue that with better execution, Tennessee is 10-0 right now (they have two losses by a combined six points).

Tennessee has been elite at making in-game offensive adjustments

We saw a great example in Tennessee’s 22-7 win over Texas A&M of the tremendous job that the Vols’ offensive staff is doing of making in-game adjustments.

Tennessee didn’t have much success running the ball in the first half against the Aggies (45 rushing yards on 25 attempts in the first half). So they made a big adjustment at halftime — and it worked (151 rushing yards in the second half).

According to Texas A&M linebacker Daymion Sanford, the Vols went from mostly 12 personnel (two tight ends) in the first half to 11 personnel in the second half, and that opened up the running game for Tennessee.

“They switched from 12 to 11 personnel,” said Sanford when asked about Texas A&M struggling to get off the field in the second half. “I feel like they found out we were doing and attacked the soft soft edges. And I feel like they did a pretty good job with that.”

Interestingly, this is the opposite of how the Vols won the Auburn game in early October.

Tennessee was in 11 personnel early in that game before switching to 12 personnel in the second half (interestingly, both times it was heavy 12 personnel with George MacIntyre and 11 personnel with Brandon…though the Vols still used 12 personnel a few times in the second half against Texas A&M).

This is just another great example of how Halzle, Heupel and the Vols’ offensive staff are able to make elite in-game adjustments. It doesn’t mean they’re always going to have the answers — there are some great defensive minds in college football — but it certainly shows that Tennessee’s offensive staff can win their fair share of chess matches.