By Jimmy Hyams
Often times, fans watch their team’s performance, then project to the future.
That can be a dangerous and futile exercise.
For example, based on the previous week’s games, you might thought Vanderbilt could compete with Alabama, or Mississippi State might upset Georgia, or Auburn couldn’t score 51 points against any team that calls itself the Tigers.
That’s why forecasting a Georgia rout over Tennessee isn’t necessarily a wise thing to do, Vol Nation.
Georgia was dominant in a 31-3 mauling of Mississippi State, holding explosive quarterback Nick Fitzgerald to 130 total yards, 93 passing, and yielding a mere 273 total yards to Dan Mullen’s team.
But Georgia didn’t look like world-beaters when it escaped against Notre Dame, 20-19.
Tennessee was often times anemic in a lethargic 17-13 victory over winless and 28-point underdog UMass. The Minutemen weren’t just 0-4 entering the UT contest, they had lost to Hawaii, Coastal Carolina, Old Dominion and Temple.
As it has done from time to time, Tennessee played down to the competition before fewer than 80,000 in actual attendance. That number dwindled to about 50,000 at the start of the third quarter and less than that in the fourth quarter.
If not for a second-half injury to starting quarterback Andrew Ford and the absence of NFL-caliber tight end Adam Breneman, the Minutemen might have pulled this one out.
“Unacceptable,’’ was the word Tennessee coach Butch Jones used at least three times in his post-game press conference that started about 35 minutes after the game ended.
Jones pointed to a lack of consistency in practice the week before.
“What happened today was a byproduct of practice,’’ Jones said.
Practice? We talkin’ about practice?
Don’t tell Allen Iverson, but Jones is right.
And while Jones didn’t admit it directly, he had to know his team was suffering from a Gator Hangover.
Despite the week-long talk otherwise, Tennessee didn’t put behind its devastating, last-play 26-20 loss at Florida the week before.
But Vols offensive lineman Brett Kendrick wasn’t buying it.
“I don’t think that had any effect on us,’’ said Kendrick. “There’s no excuse for us to come out and play the way we did.’’
Kendrick is right, there is no excuse for the way UT played. But I beg to differ on the Florida influence.
Since 2009, I charted what I considered eight “devastating’’ losses for Tennessee. The record in games the next week: 2-6, with wins over FCS teams Western Carolina and Tennessee Tech.
It’s tough to bounce back from gut-wrenching defeats, especially to rivals.
UMass made Tennessee look like a sub .500 team. In a how-did-that-happen stat, UMass outrushed the Vols 144 yards to 135. Its offensive line got a better push than UT’s O-line.
Tennessee had 18 runs of 2 or fewer yards, 8 of which were tackles for loss.
And I don’t want to hear the response: Those guys are on scholarship, too.
UMass gave UT trouble with his shifts, movement and stems.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t pick that up,’’ Kendrick said.
Tennessee John Kelly had 101 hard-earned yards on 25 carries, but he also had just 21 yards on 11 second-half runs.
After scoring 14 points in the last five minutes of the first half, Tennessee managed just three points in the second half and punted on seven of eight possessions. UT gained just 68 yards in the second half
“It was frustrating not scoring points,’’ Kendrick said. “We finished the first half with two touchdowns so obviously we felt we had momentum in the second half. But we didn’t execute.’’
The execution was so poor, Jones benched Dormady (17 of 27 for 187 yards) in favor of Jarrett Guarantano (2 of 5 for -3 yards) who was totally ineffective.
“We were looking for a spark and some energy,’’ Jones said.
Instead, he invited a controversy.
At least Tennessee’s defense rose to the occasion, forcing three consecutive punts and a fourth-down stop to put the game away. UT’s defense had seven sacks, forced 10 punts and limited UMass to 281 total yards.
While Tennessee’s defense wasn’t bad, the team’s overall performance won’t cut it against Georgia.
But as we all should know by now, you can’t project future performance based on last week’s result.
Just ask Vanderbilt.
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