Tennessee's OT win vs. Appalachian State worrisome, but not sign of disaster
The sky isn’t falling in Tennessee — it only feels that way.
Admittedly, Thursday night’s overtime win against Appalachian State is concerning, if for no other reason than this: Tennessee needed overtime to sneak past Appalachian State.
Not that the Mountaineers are pushovers in the least: Appalachian State is a Group of Five bully, one year removed from 11 wins, and an absolute nightmare for teams — such as Tennessee or Miami (Fla.), up next — prone to looking past the less glitzy names on their schedule.
“I've never been part of a frustrating win. A win is a win,” said Tennessee coach Butch Jones. “Did we do some things that were uncharacteristic? Absolutely. I can guarantee you this, we will get them corrected. I think there's a lot of great teaching points that came about that we have to get corrected. Again, we found a way to win.”
No. 10 Tennessee escapes big upset in OT vs. Appalachian State
A win is indeed a win — even if you can’t spell upset without UT — and there are bigger concerns for the Volunteers than just one game. Such as, for example:
►Jones and his staff had weeks and weeks to get their team prepared for the opener, both physically and mentally, and this is the result?
►Is this the offense that will lift the Volunteers to the top of the East Division?
►What happens when UT loses the turnover battle against a conference opponent?
Seriously, Butch Jones?
It’s only fair to raise these broader, big-picture concerns — the same worries and issues that have plagued the program nearly throughout Jones’ tenure, most notably during those multiple fourth-quarter collapses a season ago.
What’s not fair, however, is to infer from Thursday night’s narrow win that UT is headed for disaster. Recent history alone states otherwise: A number of high-profile teams have struggled in early games and gone on to have wildly successful seasons.
“Wining college football games is hard, man. Against anybody,” Connecticut coach Bob Diaco said after the Huskies’ 24-21 win against Maine.
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Take North Carolina’s 2015 season, when an avoidable loss to South Carolina prefaced an 11-game winning streak, or Stanford, which lost to Northwestern to open last fall before reaching and winning the Rose Bowl.
There’s the example of Ohio State, which lost to Virginia Tech in its second game of the 2014 season before going on to win the national championship.
Auburn’s 2013 season opened with a 31-24 win against Washington State — which finished with a losing record — and ended against Florida State in the national title game. Five teams that finished ranked in the final Coaches Poll of the 2012 season lost their openers; another four won by a touchdown or less.
So this happens. What’s vital, of course, is that Tennessee learns from Appalachian State; even better teams await, including Virginia Tech, Florida, Georgia, Texas A&M and Alabama before the fourth Saturday of October. Bringing a similar effort into the rest of its schedule will leave Tennessee far off its goal of College Football Playoff contention while raising questions about Jones’ job security to a fever pitch.
That’s worrisome. But the Volunteers aren’t the first hyped team to scuffle in its opener — and very likely won’t be the last to do so in Week 1. Nor would the Volunteers be the first team to stub its toe out of the gate yet still manage to match or exceed expectations.
“Winning is fragile, especially on this level,” said Tennessee wide receiver Josh Malone. “We'll take it. There are still a lot of things we can improve on. We just want to take the win and improve from it.”
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