The Tennessee Vols easily beat Ball State in the season opener last week, winning 59-10 in front of 92,236 fans at Neyland Stadium.

There usually isn't much to take away from a 49-point win over an obviously overmatched opponent.

The Ball State game, however, was extremely important for the Vols and their offense.

That's because it gave Tennessee a taste of how opposing defenses could try to take away the deep ball this season.

Ball State played soft coverage against the Vols, routinely dropping seven or eight defenders into coverage. They basically let Tennessee have the intermediate stuff while keeping everything in front of them.

Defenses with more talent will be more aggressive against Tennessee. But that drop-eight look is still something that UT could see again this season — especially in certain situations.

Vols quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle explained this week how Tennessee's game against Ball State will help the offense moving forward.

"Whenever people are playing the drop eight stuff, it's a good lesson in having to shop windows, to work bodies, there's just bodies everywhere," said Halzle. "You got to feel space, that's what we're all based on is feeling space anyway. So, it's a good thing for him (Hendon Hooker) to see that early in the year because someone else is going to try it at some point – don't know who it's going to be but it's going to show up again. With that said, we're still going to attack, we're still going to dictate the way the game is played on our side of the ball, regardless of the style of the defense."

"They were playing soft, it's like cool, we're not going to do anything that's foolish and just try to launch it down the middle of the field," added Halzle. "They were giving us the short stuff and we were taking that thing all night. Whenever they're giving it to you, you just keep taking it and move on down the road. Eventually, you get somebody in a one-on-one situation like what happened in the fourth quarter, and we hit Jimmy (Holiday) on the dig rolling in there and he's goes and gets off the field."

"You still have all the same opportunities, it's just him understanding the type of game it's going to be. You can't get bored with your team's success. You got to keep taking what's there and keep pushing it aggressively down the field."

Some might look at the Ball State game as a glorified scrimmage. And that's kind of true. The Vols didn't show their full array of weapons/looks. As a result, we didn't learn much about the offense based on what we saw.

Tennessee, however, got some different looks from an opposing defense. And that's something that practice can't replicate.

There were some things that UT saw in this game that will inevitably help them down the road. Just because it was an easy blowout win doesn't mean the game wasn't also beneficial for Tennessee.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports