Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel was asked on Monday if knowing Alex Golesh's offense will give the Vols an advantage against Auburn, like knowing Jerry Mack's helped Tennessee against Kennesaw State.
Heupel's answer wasn't surprising: yes, the familiarity will help some, but overall, no, because the Tigers' personnel is at a much higher level.
Heupel pointed to the mobility of Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown and Owls signal-caller Rickie Collins as a similarity in the two teams' attack. Both have three rushing touchdowns this season thus far, though Brown has Collins beat in yardage, 235 to187.
“I think there’s some similarities in what Jerry Mack and Alex and Auburn are doing. There’s going to be a lot of differences as well based off of personnel. Like you get to a place, you recognize the personnel and then how do you put those guys in a position to be successful? Both quarterbacks (are) mobile. This one, they’re going to use in the quarterback-run game a lot more than what we saw from Kennesaw," Heupel said.
Golesh and Mack were part of the Vols' coaching staff in 2021 and 2022.
Golesh was the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach, while Mack was the running backs coach.
Heupel started as the play-caller but eventually handed more control over to Golesh before he took USF's head coaching job during the 2022 coaching cycle.
Mack ended up taking a job with the Jacksonville Jaguars in the same role before taking the Kennesaw State job.
Tennessee defense coming off strong performance vs. Texas
Tennessee's defense had a seven-drive stretch against Mack's Owls offense, after the initial Kennesaw State drive, in which the Vols gave up 42 yards total.
Against Arch Manning and Texas this past weekend in a 20-17 home loss, Tennessee held the Longhorns to a 25% third-down conversion rate, with an average of nine yards to go per third down.
Most impressively, the Volunteers got to Manning in the backfield six times. Good luck to what's been a makeshift offensive line rotation on the Plains.
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Tennessee's strength is on the defensive side of the ball, with the offensive trenches making true freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon a sitting-duck target for Tigers defenders along DJ Durkin's front.
Auburn's defense has to step up if Tigers will have a shot
Speaking of Durkin and his defense, Auburn didn't play as well against Vanderbilt as it will take to help a winning cause against the Commodores' Volunteer State counterparts in the SEC.
The Vols can and will decimate the Tigers with the infamous veer-and-shoot spread offense that Heupel has not only perfected from an Xs and Os standpoint, but has also found the right personnel nearly every season in charge, if the defense is slacking.
Heupel knows Auburn has problems defending on fourth down, having given up four conversions in five attempts against Vanderbilt. That should be a soft spot that Tennessee exploits if given the chance on the Tigers' side of the field.
Heupel knows this will be a chess match against his former protege.
The student-teacher battle will be the second such battle Heupel will have had this fall.
We'll see if Heupel will have the same luck the second time around against the man he trusted to take over the play sheet almost half a decade ago.
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