Cutcliffe wants Vols hot, steady

Photo by Amy Smotherman Burgess

Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge celebrates a touchdown in the second quarter Saturday at Kentucky.

Sometimes the difference between hot and cold depends on the calendar or the clock.

In California's Death Valley, the difference between fry-an-egg and freeze-your-tail is all a matter of timing.

For Tennessee's offense, timing has been everything.

This season the 14th-ranked Vols have averaged 234 yards in the first half of their 12 games and just 161 after they leave the locker room for the second half.

In Saturday's SEC championship game against No. 5 LSU (TV: WVLT, 4 p.m.), Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cuutcliffe wants his Vols to be hot all day long against Louisiana's residents of Death Valley.

"We've been hot at times, but we need to be hot in this one for four quarters if we can," Cutcliffe said.

Tennessee has been less than blazing in the second half this season.

Only once all year have the Vols gained more yards after halftime than they did in the first two quarters.

While yards aren't everything, they sure help eat the clock - or mount a comeback.

And with the exception of Tennessee's runaway homecoming victory over Louisiana-Lafayette, and a 124-yard-fourth quarter against Vanderbilt, the Vols haven't been chewing up the turf after halftime.

It's not coasting and it's not taking a foot off the gas pedal.

But it's not exactly pouring it on, either.

"Sometimes a complete game means finishing it without a mistake, keeping the other team off the field," Cutcliffe said. "Have we hit on all cylinders for four quarters where you're scoring like a scoring machine? Probably not. I think we're capable of getting hot. There's times you have to go back and look, 'Am I pulling the reins too early?' "

That's one possibility.

Quarterback Erik Ainge has another.

"I don't know," Ainge said. "I don't know if it's the fact that we have those few special plays you can call against their defense. We get out there and we're aggressive early and we call them and we hit them.

"Those are scheme touchdowns, not a great throw and catch. Those kind of plays for a big, cheap chunk of yards."

Tennessee hit a few of those plays Saturday against Kentucky, rolling up 307 yards of total offense and a 24-7 halftime lead against the Wildcats.

But those 307 yards represent 72 percent of UT's output in regulation.

And as the production dropped - and UT's receivers dropped a few key passes - Kentucky erased a 17-point deficit and sent the game to overtime.

It was nearly the same story against South Carolina, when the Gamecocks rallied from a 21-0 halftime deficit to take a fourth-quarter lead.

The yards aren't nearly as troubling as the points for Cutcliffe.

"There's really only one statistic that concerns me. It concerned me that we lost the lead 31-14 (at Kentucky)," Cutcliffe said. "Look at that, and there wasn't anything schematically anything that happened in that one."

Tailback Arian Foster wants to see UT's execution improve against the Tigers.

"When we have drive-stoppers like turnovers and penalties, those are things we can control," he said. "I feel like if we go out and control what we can control and execute, we should give ourselves a great chance."

Despite the numbers, though, the Vols have been able to fire up the engine when they need to.

Against South Carolina, UT came up with a two-minute drill that sent the game to overtime.

Against Kentucky, the Vols made the plays they needed to win in four overtimes.

And against Vanderbilt, a game UT trailed by 15 points entering the fourth quarter, the Vols made the plays they needed to win.

"I don't think there's any theme involved with any of it," Cutcliffe said. "I think each game is kind of is its own animal. What I look at is execution and intensity and effort."

Drew Edwards covers University of Tennessee football. He may be reached at 865-342-6274.

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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