[2024] Tennessee Spring Game 1 Preview

[tsweezy]

Well well well, it's finally the time we've all been waiting for! Recruiting season  Spring game season!

The Tennessee faithful spent all winter sobbing over losing to TCU and wiping their tears with print-outs of Heisman trophy results and Rivals recruiting rankings, and frantically reading message board rumors about how Tee Sweezy and BJ Flash are doing (and whether Mark Koch is going to transfer) but now are ready to get back on the horse. First up, the presumptive preseason #1 team in the nation: The Tulsa Golden Hurricanes! 2021 National Champions, led by coach @acewulf.

To say this is a big game would be an understatement, it's massive and goes a long way in the public perception of which teams are championship contenders. Both schools made the playoffs last year and bring back a lot of offensive weapons.

Below we're going to breakdown some of the storylines going into the game (thankfully played in Knoxville):

 

QB battle: Savage vs. Larkin

I think everyone is at least familiar with Savage now. The Tennessee QB is the reigning Heisman winner with > 6000 yards, 50 TDs last year and is on his way to setting NCAA career records. The debate is whether he can keep up that pace. He loses 2 of his top 3 targets: Will Jackson and Matt Siri (3rd round draft pick) but they bring back preseason all-american contender Hayes Edwards and Eric Barnhart. 

On the other side, Cameron Larkin almost took out Ekuale last year as Tulsa fretted over their passing attack not clicking. Ultimately though he was unable to fully win the starting spot and had to wait a year. He's got a live arm but pretty average everywhere else and is frankly the weakest part of Tulsa's roster (bar maybe the OLBs). Some fans have been loudly clamoring for a different QB though: (Fr) Cesar Chacon who is... basically the opposite of Larkin lol. They'll get their chance to see him in spots this spring but the thought is that Larkin will have plentyyy of leash to work out any kinks. If Larkin can put together a great game against Tennessee (who doesn't have the best defense to be fair) Tulsa fans are probably going to be seeing trophies in their future (and Tony Sherman is gonna try his damnedest to make that happen)

 

Tulsa D-Line vs. Tennessee O-Line

The achilles heel of this Tennessee team? Their OL. They managed to scrape together 5 (barely) B+ overalls but some of them are out of position and will play more like Bs, and none of them are good run blockers. On the flip side the Tulsa DEs are VERY good. A couple A- guys who already out match the OL and then Freddy Garvachio who's basically all A/A+s to deliver the kill shot. It's going to be a desperate battle to keep the pocket clean for long enough for Savage to get a pass off, and they won't create any holes on the ground either. This will be a good insight as to whether the Tennessee offense can find some creative sparks to work around the mismatch and generate plays. On the flip side Tulsa wants to squelch the offense entirely here. Good chance to see which happens.

 

New Scheme Options

Honestly neither team looks likely to run a bunch of option or RPOs this year. We should see spots of it to be cool but maybe not the defining feature of the game. More interesting to me will be if you can see the results of focused defenses, or double covering / forcing the ball to receivers.

 

NFL Draft watch

A brief rundown of guys scouts will be looking at:

Tulsa:

DE Freddy Garvacio - We touched on him already but he's one of the 2nd tier of DE prospects in this upcoming draft

FS Joe Harris - My #3 FS prospect, I think Joe has a chance to go early this upcoming draft and is a likely 2nd rounder I think

WR Tony Sherman -  On paper he looks really good and has phenomenal hands. He definitely has some hype but lacks a bit of top end speed and can sometimes run sloppy routes relying on his catch radius. If he puts up stats anyways look for his name to be called early.

 

Tennessee:

Well this is easier. You'd think the winningest (by win pct.) team in CFB would have a ton of draft prospects right? Nope, just WR Hayes Edwards who is somewhere around WR5-10 in this draft class but could work his way anywhere from end of the first to 5th depending on the year. He's definitely getting drafted though. The only other guy who's worth a look is DE Matthew Cano who mayyyy get a look in the 7th if he shows out this year. That's about it.

 

Breakout players?

I think Matt Richardson is quietly one of Tennessee's most important players. Projected to be a high draft pick next season, he's responsible for cleaning up in the secondary and with meh corners he could see a lot of action. Plus ballhawks are sexy. 
Joe Williams also finally gets his crack at RB. The supposed best underclassman RB in the nation, he's finally going to see a ton of snaps and I'm anxious to see how he does

 

Idk enough about Tulsa to pick their guys here. Let me know who could fit the bill. I do think we may be in for a heavier dose of WR Ben Bromley than people expect though. Zac Hicks could rack up some stats too.

 

First looks at guys?

Not a lot of underclassmen are in line to start for these teams but there are a few. On Tennessee you have aforementioned RB Joe Williams. We also see WRs Quincy Stanton and Alex Smith-Schuster make their WR debut.  On the DL it's going to be great to see last years 5-star signees Ernesto Moran and Roger London finally hit the field. First ever defensive 5-stars for the Tennessee program. 

Actually I guess that's quite a few guys lol

 

For Tulsa- Everyone wants to see Cesar Chacon, but like I said I don't think this is the game it's going to happen. Jordan Wilds at TE is the underclassmen headlining a frankly sub-par room that might not be heavily utilized. 

OG Ernest Williams and SS Frederick Theriot are the only 2nd year players starting for Tulsa and Ernest in particular is a surprise to me. He definitely seems like the weak spot on the OL but we'll see if he's ready.
Theriot on the other hand looks more capable. I'm not sure he's ready for stardom but he's definitely not going to be excessively targeted. 

 

Tennessee Roster Battles

Not many spots are up for grabs but a few potential things to keep your eyes on:

WR: Barnhart and Robinson are better on paper, but Stanton/Smith-Schuster got the WR2/3 nods. We'll see if that gets shuffled around as the season goes

DE: Anderson and Cano came back for their 5th years and are pretty good players. But underclassmen Dimmadome Jr. and London are chomping at the bit to see the field. This is a perfect opportunity to rotate 4 in at DE but given the sim constraints, we may flip back and forth on a game-by-game basis and see who performs better

ILB: Adames, Lawson, Billups are all pretty similar in ability but drastically different archetypes. Even though Adames is the oldest (and best) option, will he hold off the younger candidates the whole season?

 

Game Preview:

Looking up and down the rosters, I think I have Tulsa with the edge in this one. They just have so few weaknesses and that DL should be overpowering enough to neuter the passing attack of Tennessee. The best chance for Tennessee is to throw to TE/RBs and short passes to WRs to try and exploit the relatively weaker OLBs and not spend too much time in the pocket inviting sacks. Still though, I think they struggle to score 21 in this game

On the flip side, I think Tulsa has the WR and RB weapons to march down the field continuously. I don't think Larkin is a top-tier QB in the country, but he doesn't necessarily have to be. I think Tulsa continuously wins the field position battle with a few long bombs that work out and take the game 31-21 as they start their march towards a natty