Kirby Smart gives his thoughts on the Tennessee Vols offense
The Tennessee Vols easily handled the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night in Neyland Stadium and the Georgia Bulldogs took care of business against the Florida Gators in Jacksonville. That means we get a massive showdown between Tennessee and Georgia next Saturday in Athens. On Saturday, after the Bulldogs' win over the Gators, Georgia head coach […]
The Tennessee Vols easily handled the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night in Neyland Stadium and the Georgia Bulldogs took care of business against the Florida Gators in Jacksonville.
That means we get a massive showdown between Tennessee and Georgia next Saturday in Athens.
On Saturday, after the Bulldogs' win over the Gators, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart met with reporters.
And as expected, he was asked about facing the Vols' up-tempo offense.
"They run the ball really well, guys," said Smart on Saturday. "I know you don't believe me, but they run the ball really well, which is why they throw the ball outside because everybody's got people inside. They have a perfect storm: they've got really fast, elite wideouts, a quarterback with a really strong arm. You know, if they have a quarterback that couldn't throw it, you'd say, 'Well, they're one-dimensional.' But they have kind of a perfect storm going for his offense, and when he has that it's really, really, really hard to stop. They go at an elite pace, and they do a tremendous job."
"That will be an age-old question. I think every defensive coordinator across college football is trying to figure that out," said Smart when asked about preparing for Tennessee's tempo. "We're all searching. There's no way. Let's be honest, you can two-huddle, three-huddle, shotgun huddle, go against air but they do it and they do it really well. It's really hard to defend.”
Smart's comments are a bit different than some of the comments we heard from LSU's Brian Kelly earlier this year or Kentucky's Mark Stoops last week.
It's clear that Smart has a lot of respect for the Vols' offense.
Unfortunately for the Vols, that means Georgia won't be overlooking Tennessee's potent offense.
The good news for the Vols, however, is that so far, no one has come close to stopping this offense. Kentucky had its streak of keeping teams under 24 points snapped at 11 games on Saturday after giving up 44 points to Tennessee.
Georgia has an elite defense — probably the best in the nation — but going against Tennessee will be the toughest test they've faced yet.
It should be a classic down in Athens next weekend.
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