Tennessee football: Georgia great David Pollack has lot of love for Vols offense

Eric Gray, Tennessee Volunteers. (100320 Tenn Mo Jpg)
Eric Gray, Tennessee Volunteers. (100320 Tenn Mo Jpg) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Tennessee football will face tougher challenges than Missouri but the offense is looking as it’s looked in years and Vols fans should be excited about the future.

Sure, it’s only against Missouri, but the Vols offense hasn’t looked this good in a long time and it’s not going unnoticed across the nation.

In fact, former Georgia football legend and current ESPN commentator, David Pollack has taken notice of the great play thus far of the Vols and thinks it’s the best they’ve had in a long time in part because of the play of the offensive line.

Tennessee offensive line is the key to the Vols offensive success

The Vols have All-American Trey Smith who is a projected first round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft and welcomed former five-star recruit, Cade Mays, to the lineup after the SEC granted him eligibility after his transfer from Georgia.

It’s been the offensive line that’s been feasting on the Missouri front and paving the way for Eric Gray and Ty Chandler to churn up yards and move the sticks.

Gray ran for 105 yards on 16 carries and a touchdown. Chandler ran for 90 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. As a team, the Vols ran for 232 yards on 4.5 yards per carry.

The play of the line and the efficiency of the running backs has lightened the burden on quarterback Jarrett Guarantano who has been up and down in his career and is still working on refining the finer points to make steady improvement. With the run game dominating, the receivers are getting a ton of man looks which makes it easier for Guarantano to exploit and once they get play-action involved, the Vols passing attack should explode.

Tennessee football has a tough schedule with Florida, Georgia and Alabama looming large, but they may be able to win the rest of their games even if they lose to the SEC’s Big Three. Heck, they may be able to put Georgia on upset alert depending on how the Dawgs quarterback situation plays out.

With the offensive line playing the way it is, they’ll be in just about every game they play in.

Next. Best college football players of all time from every state. dark

For more NCAA football news, analysis, opinion and unique coverage by FanSided, including Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff rankings, be sure to bookmark these pages.