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Article published Oct 8, 2008 Tough transition: Vols still adjusting to new offense
By Ryan Callahan of The Daily Times Staff
KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee offensive coordinator Dave Clawson has found success at virtually every stop in his 20-year coaching career.
On a few occasions, it came almost instantly. Others took time.
His latest challenge might fall among the latter.
Still adjusting to Clawson's new system and their second quarterback of the season, the Volunteers (2-3, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) will be looking to emerge from their worst scoring slump in 14 years with a trip to No. 10 Georgia (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday.
Tennessee, the third-lowest scoring team in the SEC, has put up only 31 points in its last three games, including a 13-9 win over Northern Illinois on Saturday in which sophomore Nick Stephens replaced junior Jonathan Crompton as UT's starting quarterback.
It's the lowest-scoring stretch for the Vols since 1994, when they had the same number of points during a similar three-game lull that started with a 31-0 loss to Florida.
"If you look at the numbers, and then the stats on how many points we're scoring, I'm certainly disappointed in that," Clawson said Tuesday.
He shouldn't be too surprised.
Clawson made smooth transitions as offensive coordinator at Lehigh and Villanova more than a decade ago, but his recent head-coaching stints at Fordham and Richmond had more turbulent starts.
Fordham finished 0-11 and scored 15.4 points per game in 1999, the first of Clawson's five years there. Richmond stumbled to a 3-8 season in 2004, with Clawson's new offense putting up only 18 points per game.
Both of those programs, however, represented rebuilding jobs. That's not the case with the Vols, who returned eight starters on offense from a team that won the SEC East last year.
The switch to a new offense, Clawson acknowledged, could be contributing to the Vols' problems.
"Certainly, the fact that we have five new coaches working together and it's a new offense, I think there are growing pains," he said. "We're working hard at that and trying to make that better every week."
And it is getting better, senior offensive guard Anthony Parker said.
"It's a new system, and every day you can see a change in the offensive line coming together more. Not even just the offensive line, but the entire offense, with it being a new system," Parker said.
"I know we went through spring and summer camp, but there's still going to be a progression until the end of the year."
Tennessee doesn't have time to wait.
Already needing help from Florida and unbeaten Vanderbilt to climb back into contention, the last-place Vols risk losing relevance in the SEC East race with games against two top-10 teams -- the Bulldogs and second-ranked Alabama -- in the next three weeks.
They'll need across-the-board improvements on offense against Georgia, particularly for a once-powerful running game that has been held to an average of 96.3 yards over the last three games.
Tennessee's offensive line, which allowed the fewest sacks in the nation last year and returned all five starters, now is part of the problem.
"We haven't played up to our ability (on the offensive line) yet this year," UT coach Phillip Fulmer said. "Certainly some good moments. We rushed the football well at times. But no, we have not been as consistent -- nearly as consistent -- as we need to be from a physical execution."
The same applies to the rest of the offense.
Penalties and untimely turnovers have cost the Vols in each of their three losses, and a handful of other issues were exposed against Northern Illinois, which limited UT to 225 total yards.
Clawson said the Vols could use more big plays, like Stephens' 52-yard touchdown pass to Denarius Moore on Saturday.
"If you watch teams that score 30 and 40 points, it's not a methodical 3 and 4 yards," Clawson said. "There are explosive plays in there. It's hard to go 80 yards or 60 yards without having a chunk play of 15, 18, 25 yards."
Fulmer said the coaching staff briefly considered a few potential solutions -- signaling in offensive plays from the sideline as the Vols did in 2004 and employing a no-huddle offense, most notably -- for reviving the offense but has decided against them for now.
Dealing with change, after all, might not be UT's strong suit this year.
"I think the challenge has been trying to find ways of creating the mismatches and consistently winning them," Clawson said. "In that regard, we're still working hard and trying to find the best way to exploit them."