When college football returns in a month, we will begin to learn the answers to important questions. Will Tennessee be a surprise SEC Championship contender? Will the Vols make the 12-team playoffs?
One thing about which there is no mystery, however. Tennessee will be electric on offense.
That’s why athletic director Danny White hired Josh Heupel three years ago. White wasn’t wrong.
Heupel’s Central Florida teams ranked second nationally in total offense in 2019 and 2020. His first Tennessee team, 2021, ranked ninth nationally despite a makeshift lineup.
Next, the 2022 team led the nation in offense, with 525.6 yards per game – and in scoring, with 46.1 points per game.
That unit of 22 led by Hendon Hooker set all kinds of school records, including total offense, en route to 11 wins.
In 2023, with the departure of Hooker and Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver Jalin Hyatt, the Vols were down to 448 yards per game.
But hopes are high that the recession will be a one-year aberration. In second-year Nico Iamaleava, Heuple appears to have the quarterback to step up again in 2024.
A timeline of the evolution of Tennessee’s offense over the decades is in order. Let’s go back to the 1950s.
Tennessee lists extensive statistics for the 1950 season for the first time. The 1951 national championship team, with Hank Lauricella running the single-wing offense, averaged 368.5 yards per game. The Vols were 10-0 in the regular season. Statistics from a Sugar Bowl loss to Maryland didn’t count back then.
Doug Dickey brought the modern T formation to Knoxville in 1964. The single-wing transition was not an immediate success. The ’64 Vols scored just eight offensive touchdowns all season, attempted fewer passes than the single-wing ’63 team, and went 1-5-1 in SEC play.
Things got better. SEC securities appeared in 1967 and 1969.
But it wasn’t until 1970, Bill Battle’s first season, that the total offense surpassed the 1951 mark, averaging 396.5 yards per game. The Vols went 11-1, finishing second in the SEC and fourth in the AP poll.
In 1984, with Tony Robinson taking over as quarterback, Tennessee finally surpassed the 400-yard plateau, averaging 401.6 yards per game. The final result was just 7-4-1.
Several incremental gains followed.
The 1987 Vols averaged 405.9 yards per game with Jeff Francis at quarterback, finishing 10-2-1 and third in the SEC.
With Andy Kelly under center and Phillip Fulmer promoted to offensive coordinator, Tennessee increased the record to 408.5 yards in 1989, then to 411 yards in 1990. Both seasons produced SEC titles.
In 1991, Kelly’s senior year, the average jumped to 467.7 yards per game. Losses to Florida and Alabama left the Vols without an SEC championship.
Fans didn’t have to wait long for the next pop. In 1993, with Heath Shuler as the Heisman runner-up, Tennessee averaged 480.5 yards, went 9-2-1, losing only to Florida and then Penn State in the Citrus Bowl. Fulmer was the new head coach, David Cutcliffe taking over as coordinator.
The Fulmer-Cutcliffe combination continued to put up numbers. Peyton Manning’s arrival didn’t hurt.
Manning’s senior year, 1997, ended with an SEC title and, with 482.8 yards per game, a new standard for season total offense.
And that’s where the record remained for 25 years, until 2022.
Oh, there was a threat. In 2012, Tyler Bray picked off passes that led to an average total offense of 476 yards per game. To no avail. UT went 1-7 in the SEC and Derek Dooley was fired.
I’m betting the 525.6 yard average in 2022 will stick around for a while. But I also bet it will be fun to watch Nico and the Vols on offense this fall.
Mike Strange is a former News Sentinel writer. He currently writes a weekly sports column for Shopper News.
This article originally appeared in the Knoxville News Sentinel: With Nico Iamaleava, can Tennessee football match its offensive record?
