Tennessee offense preview: Can Kentucky force the Vols to pass?

Kentucky football travels to Knoxville to face off against the #16 Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday night, and both teams are coming off of a bye week. We previewed the Tennessee defense and the big scheme showdown between Will Stein's offense against Jim Knowles' defense. Now we will take a look at the Tennessee offense that has consistently put up points under head coach Josh Heupel. Heupel's offense this year has struggled in some areas, and it has resembled the 2024 offense in a lot of ways.

Since becoming the head coach of Tennessee in 2021, Josh Heupel has had his offense scoring a lot of points and he is 5-0 against Kentucky. Mark Stoops and Brad White could not figure out Heupel's up-tempo offense that features extremely wide splits from the wide receivers that creates a light box to run the football. Heupel's offenses are averaging over 40 points per game in this series. It is time to see if the new scheme change that has taken place under Jay Bateman will be more effective in slowing down this scheme.

This scheme is creative because the wide splits create light boxes that the Vols will then use their ground game to run into favorable looks. Once Tennessee gets the run game going, they will then take shots down the field on deep option routes. However, this offense is similar to the 2024 version, which has become heavily dependent on the run game getting going. The quarterback situation is in the worst position it has been in under Heupel.

Heupel is playing the cards close to his chest and continuing to use gamesmanship by not naming a starter. True freshman Faizon Brandon started the season and after struggling then getting a minor injury, the Vols switched to redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and have not switched back since. MacIntyre has ran the offense better in my opinion, he is less frantic in the pocket and is better at getting the ball out of his hands. The only issue is MacIntyre has not pushed the football down the field much, his 5.7 average depth of target is the lowest in the SEC and is obviously a critical element of Heupel's scheme.

MacIntyre will get the start, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a little bit of Faizon Brandon as well to try and throw off Kentucky's defense. Kentucky has faced a dual threat quarterback every week of the season to this point, I am intrigued to see how this pass rush gets after a quarterback that is a pocket passer like MacIntyre. It is something we have yet to see, and this is an area that could be a massive advantage for the Wildcats. It is important that Kentucky wins the early downs on defense and force Tennessee to beat them through the air.

Tennessee's offense is led by running back DeSean Bishop, and the Vols will absolutely try to feed him in this football game. Tennessee ranks third in the SEC in yards per rush and EPA per rush, they are very much a run heavy offense. Tennessee is still getting explosive plays in this offense, they have a 12.6 explosive play rate which is third in the conference. The Vols rank second in the SEC with a 15.3 explosive run rate and they rank 13th with a 9.6 explosive pass rate.

Tennessee ranks 13th in the SEC in EPA per dropback and yards per pass attempt. They rank 11th in the conference with a 42.5% pass success rate. This is simple for Kentucky, stack the box and slow down this run game. Kentucky has to sell out to stop the run and force the Vols to beat them with their quarterbacks, whether it be MacIntyre or Brandon.

DeSean Bishop is one of the best running backs in the country, he has 957 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. Bishop is averaging over 100 yards per game and 5.6 yards per carry. He helps the Vols convert on early downs, as their 46.5% early down conversion rate ranks sixth in the SEC. However, they have struggled to convert on third down like Kentucky as they have converted just 35.5% of third down opportunities this season, which ranks 15th in the SEC.

In our self scout over the bye week, we pointed out how Kentucky's run defense really improved in the month of October. This has to continue for Kentucky to win this football game, but it will be easier said than done. Jay Bateman has to force Tennessee into a dropback heavy game by getting his defense to stop the run. If they can successfully do that, they will be in a great position to win this game.

Statistics from secstatcat.com

This article originally appeared on UK Wildcats Wire: Tennessee offense preview: Can Kentucky force the Vols to pass?