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aggy vs tennessee, Saturday Oct 14th at 2:30p on CBS

LTtxfan

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LTtxfan

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Since Texas and blOU are off this week, this aggy game will interest some Surly folks.  Aggy desperately needs a win here or the wheels may really come off their rollercoaster... 😋

 

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The Tennessee Volunteers hold onto a 4-1 start through five games this season. Their opponent following their bye week will be the Texas A&M Aggies. The Aggies are coming off a 26-20 loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide, moving their record to 4-2 overall this season.

It will be the fifth time the two schools have met for a game and the third time since Texas A&M joined the SEC back in 2012. The two teams met back in Neyland Stadium during the COVID-19 season in 2020, where Tennessee fell to the Aggies 34-13. Although Texas A&M lost to Alabama, they were coming off two SEC wins against the Auburn Tigers and the Arkansas Razorbacks in Dallas, Texas. Their game against Tennessee will be their first true road game in conference play.

The Vols are fresh off of a bye week and look to be rested for the game. Under head coach Josh Heupel, Tennessee has been very good off of bye weeks. They are 2-0 with wins against Kentucky in 2021 and LSU in 2022. They beat both teams in those games and put up a combined 95 points between them. The Aggies' first loss this season came against the Miami Hurricanes, and they bounced back the week after with a 47-3 win over Louisiana Monroe. However, playing in Neyland will almost assuredly be a tougher test.

Looking at Texas A&M, statistically, they are in the middle of the SEC on offense and have an okay defense strengthened by a good front seven. That group of defensive linemen and linebackers put themselves on full display against Alabama as they were disruptive, with six sacks and eight tackles for a loss. The battle at the line of scrimmage will be big in Saturday's upcoming game. Tennessee may look to get the ball out quickly. 

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LTtxfan

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The Tennessee Vols have had a lot of success running the ball this season, but they'll almost certainly need to lean on the passing game a bit more to beat the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday. 

Texas A&M has a terrific front seven which has been great against the run this season (the Aggies have the No. 8 run defense in the nation).

The Aggies' secondary, however, has been suspect. Texas A&M is extremely vulnerable to deep vertical shots and throws to the boundary. 

As a result, Texas A&M is blitzing an extreme amount to prevent opposing offenses from having a chance to throw the ball down the field. According to 247Sports/PFF, the Aggies blitzed Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe on 70 percent of his drop backs last Saturday. That approach led to mostly man coverage against Alabama's receivers. 

I'd expect the Aggies to deploy a similar approach against Tennessee this weekend. 

Gig Em 247 pointed out that Alabama attacked the Aggies' boundary with short throws when the cornerbacks played soft coverage. That's something that Tennessee has done well this season. 

Essentially, Tennessee will likely need to use their running backs in pass protection to help pick up the blitzes. And Vols quarterback Joe Milton will need to be accurate on his throws to the boundary (which he has been this season).

 

And when Milton gets a chance down the field for a deep shot, which will only happen if the protection holds up, he can't miss those shots. If Milton can hit the deep shots when they're available, the Vols will likely win. If he misses those throws, it will mean that Tennessee will have to be incredibly efficient in the short throw game. It goes without saying, but they can't afford three-and-outs. 

One reason for optimism for the Vols on Saturday is that Alabama didn't play well on the road against Texas A&M (and the crowd was very, very loud) and they still managed to handled the Aggies' pressure fairly well. 

With center Cooper Mays back and closer to 100 percent after the bye week, the Vols should have a pretty good chance at handling Texas A&M's pressure. 

If the Vols execute on Saturday, they could cruise in this game. Outside of taking away the run, the way Texas A&M will likely attack the Vols' offense plays into what Tennessee wants to do in the passing game. And the absence of zone coverage for the Aggies should help Milton eliminate any potential mistakes. 

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LTtxfan

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No rest for the weary, as Texas A&M football must already turn their attention to their upcoming opponent, the Tennessee Volunteers. The Vols are coming off of a breakout season after years of mediocrity, having developed one of the top offenses in the nation under third-year coach Josh Heupel. The Volunteers run a Briles-style spread, which has been an issue for the Aggies thus far this year.

Quarterback Joe Milton received a lot of preseason hype, as he possesses one of the strongest arms in college football and is also playing in one of the most quarterback-friendly offenses in the sport. His production has not quite matched last year’s so far, though, as Hendon Hooker was running Heupel’s offense to near-perfection.

The Tennessee defense was an underrated unit overall last year, especially when it came to the ground game. The Vols quietly boasted an outstanding rush defense, but they have slightly regressed this year. They’ve not played a whole lot of good teams yet—their opponents have been Virginia, Austin Peay, Florida, UTSA, and South Carolina—but there are certainly things that the Aggies will be able to exploit.

The biggest worry here, apart from the obvious “road trip to a tough environment after emotional loss” for Texas A&M football, is that of the Tennessee passing offense against this Aggie passing defense. This is a Tennessee aerial attack that is extremely explosive when operated correctly, and though they have struggled thus far this year (failed to exceed opponent YPA averages in 3 out of 4 FBS games), they could break out at any time. The run game has been more where they’ve found efficiency against opposing teams, so that will be a strength-on-strength matchup.

This will be the second true road test for Texas A&M football this year, as Arkansas was a neutral-site environment. The Maroon and White have had a lot of trouble in true road games recently, but the one sample we saw for the current Aggie signal caller (Max Johnson against Mississippi State last year) didn’t seem to showcase a quarterback who was particularly fazed by his surroundings. Neyland is admittedly far different than Davis-Wade, and the Vols have had a whole extra week to prepare here, but I’m hopeful the Aggies can perform up to par here. The key, in my opinion, will be stymying the Tennessee ground game—I’m not a big believer in Milton as the straw that stirs the drink when it comes to the Volunteer offense—and if the Aggies can establish the run themselves, they’ll be in a good spot. This is a precarious spot for the Aggies, and I don’t love the matchup, but I think this team starts to grow up this week. Give me 31-27 Texas A&M.

 

 

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LTtxfan

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WR's -- Webb and Nimrod  😋

Tennessee set to lean on new faces at wide receiver against Texas A&M

A major wildcard for this one.

By Terry A. Lambert Oct 11, 2023

Saturday’s game against Texas A&M will serve as the first for Tennessee without starting wide receiver Bru McCoy, who was lost for the year against South Carolina after suffering a brutal ankle injury. The Volunteers were also without Dont’e Thornton on that night, which forced young receivers Kaleb Webb and Chas Nimrod into action.

Thornton is expected back this weekend, likely set to see time both on the outside and in the slot. However, there’s no way around it at this point — Tennessee is going to be forced to rely heavily on a couple of redshirt freshmen going forward. Webb and Nimrod are a couple of guys that have drawn big praise from the coaching staff during the offseason, and they’re now going to get a chance to show it on the field.

We’ve already seen Webb haul in a touchdown earlier this season, and Nimrod has gotten involved in the offense a handful of times over the past couple of weeks. Now, they have to be ready for all the ins and outs of the offense. That’s going to mean getting involved in the perimeter screen game, both as blockers and runners.

“Offense won’t really change,” Josh Heupel said this week. “Those guys have been involved in perimeter screens where they are the ball carrier, they have been involved where they are the blocker. Offensively, we feel good about their development. They have to practice well, prepare well and get themselves in a position to go play well. We certainly expect that from them, and I know they are excited about the opportunity.”

Another way Tennessee could replace McCoy? The tight ends. Tennessee has two capable ones in Jacob Warren and McCallan Castles, and you saw Warren step up in the redzone against South Carolina. We’ve also seen Halzle get Castles involved in the screen game this year. Expect more of both going forward.

“Both of them have different skill sets,” Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle said. “Cali and Jacob are different players, but they’re both highly intelligent. We could move them around, put them in different spots, which we are, and allowing them to try to get some matchups that are favorable for them. Now, when you lose a guy like Bru who was your seasoned guy, it’s like, all right, how do we make this? You don’t just throw one person in and just expect all the production to stay the same. It’s like, how do we make this right? What do we have to do?”

Another potential wildcard here is true freshman Nathan Leacock, another guy that generated some buzz during camp. It would be surprising to see him truly crack the rotation, but he’s now one injury away from seeing legitimate playing time. The 6-3, 209 pound receiver was the 87th overall player in the 2023 recruiting cycle, per 247Sports.

“(Leacock) has a unique skill set of size and speed that, as he’s been working back — he actually had a really good day of practice today, too, which was fun to watch — it’s just been learning our system and going through it,” Halzle said

Though Thornton is expected to play, if he can’t, you could see Leacock get some run this weekend.

Tennessee has been leaning heavily on their rushing attack through five games. The Volunteers rank seventh in rushing offense in the FBS, putting up 230 yards per game with their trio of backs. However, they’re going to run into one of the top defensive lines in the country on Saturday. Texas A&M ranks eighth against the run, posing a real challenge for the Tennessee offense.

That could force Tennessee to throw the ball more, putting more pressure on these receivers to step up into their new roles.

“I expect all of them to play at a high level,” Heupel said. “We are going to need all of those guys; that will be through the course of Saturday, but also throughout the course of the season. I expect to see all of those guys.”

Tennessee remains a 3.5 point favorite, per DraftKings Sportsbook. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS on Saturday afternoon.

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LTtxfan

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7 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

Tennessee's OL is finally healthy.  Should help them.  

I've been catching up on other things, but recently saw somewhere that some bama folks said the best d-line they played this year was aggy.

 

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Vertigo

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On 10/11/2023 at 11:36 AM, markstanco said:


Why is it a must win for jimbo? If he wins he gets paid. If he loses he gets paid.

Right? Is there any such thing as a must win in this business? Oh noes! If he gets fired, he still gets his entire salary for the length of his contract without having to come to work! The pressure must be intense!

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Mitch Cumsteen

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3 minutes ago, The Dog said:

Vols got beat up by the only team they played with a pulse (Florida). aggy sucks on the road but this year's Vol team is the definition of average. 

I don't know how much to take from that game. Almost all of TN's wounds in that game were self-inflicted -- a bunch of pre-snap penalties on offense, an interception, weird shit on fourth down (their own fumble they recovered, the ref screwing up a substitution and kicking the ball, jumping offsides when Florida was going for it). Part of that was crowd noise in the swamp, where they haven't won since 2003. They always play like shit there. They won't have that problem in Knoxville and I believe they were missing two offensive linemen in that game as well that are now back.

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locodos

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13 minutes ago, The Dog said:

Vols got beat up by the only team they played with a pulse (Florida). aggy sucks on the road but this year's Vol team is the definition of average. 

That's incorrect.  Florida does not have a pulse.

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fattyflattie

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1 hour ago, LTtxfan said:

I've been catching up on other things, but recently saw somewhere that some bama folks said the best d-line they played this year was aggy.

 

They sacked them 6-7 times and had more hurries iirc.  The line got after them. And Bamas OL was wasn’t playing spectacular either. 

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LTtxfan

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59 minutes ago, fattyflattie said:

They sacked them 6-7 times and had more hurries iirc.  The line got after them. And Bamas OL was wasn’t playing spectacular either. 

 

  • CBS video (a few posts above) says aggy leads nation in sacks at 26
  • Vols not far behind with 22 sacks

 

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gofuckyourself

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2 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Oh man, doing this in a completely empty stadium is just...

Stick Around Bob Ross GIF by Originals

They do all that and then there is just dead silence.

Read the replies, if that's the same one I saw.

One aggy's retort to the many jokes was that "they were doing this during covid. On zoom. So THEY WERE SAVING LIVES."

So aggy considers the milkmen in the same category as first responders, frontline health care workers etc.

Saving. Lives.

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Duane Moore

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2 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I don't know how much to take from that game. Almost all of TN's wounds in that game were self-inflicted -- a bunch of pre-snap penalties on offense, an interception, weird shit on fourth down (their own fumble they recovered, the ref screwing up a substitution and kicking the ball, jumping offsides when Florida was going for it). Part of that was crowd noise in the swamp, where they haven't won since 2003. They always play like shit there. They won't have that problem in Knoxville and I believe they were missing two offensive linemen in that game as well that are now back.

This is all correct. The Tennessee OL should be better than it’s been all year and it was pretty good against South Carolina when they had these players back. They will hold their own against the ATM DL, not dominate it, but will give Milton time for some deep shots. Whether Milton and the Tennessee WR’s can connect on those is my biggest question. 

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Fud

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2 hours ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I don't know how much to take from that game. Almost all of TN's wounds in that game were self-inflicted -- a bunch of pre-snap penalties on offense, an interception, weird shit on fourth down (their own fumble they recovered, the ref screwing up a substitution and kicking the ball, jumping offsides when Florida was going for it). Part of that was crowd noise in the swamp, where they haven't won since 2003. They always play like shit there. They won't have that problem in Knoxville and I believe they were missing two offensive linemen in that game as well that are now back.

Tennessee was missing its center that game. He's playing tomorrow 

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utee94

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3 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

I've been catching up on other things, but recently saw somewhere that some bama folks said the best d-line they played this year was aggy.

 

Well of course it is, they run the 9-0-2 defense.  Who WOULDN'T think facing 9 DL instead of 3-4 is tough???

 

 

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Cairn Horn88

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6 hours ago, gofuckyourself said:

One aggy's retort to the many jokes was that "they were doing this during covid. On zoom. So THEY WERE SAVING LIVES."

So aggy considers the milkmen in the same category as first responders, frontline health care workers etc.

Saving. Lives.

……where were they when the bonfire collapsed?

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