UT looks to tame Wildcats in the wildcat

Elite receivers are no problem in the passing game.

Traditional offenses have almost no chance at success.

Even injuries have largely been unable to slow down the Tennessee defense.

But there's one glaring weakness for the Vols heading into the regular-season finale at Kentucky, and it's not exactly a secret. If UT is going to win on Saturday (TV: ESPNU, 7 p.m.), it's going to have to stop the Wildcats in the wildcat.

"We've struggled at times with it this season," UT coach Lane Kiffin said. "Alabama did well with it against us, and obviously Ole Miss with Dexter (McCluster), so we worked on it all last week as well anticipating we were going to see some of it last week, which we didn't.

"We'll continue to work on it this week, and it's our No. 1 priority to stop."

How exactly the Vols (6-5, 3-4 SEC) plan on doing it remains a mystery, but they've given a number of different reasons why they've had such a hard time against it.

Kiffin has pointed out the challenges the single-wing style presents to a one-gap defense like UT's.

Linebacker Rico McCoy called it less about scheme and more of a mental adjustment. Safety Eric Berry went the other way and indicated the Vols were thinking too much about it.

But at it's simplest, whether it was Tim Tebow at Florida, Alabama's Mark Ingram or McCluster, the offenses that had the most success against UT had incredible athletes taking the snap. And the Wildcats (7-4, 3-4) have one more to throw at the Vols in Alcoa product Randall Cobb.

"The hardest thing to defend is if the guy can throw the ball," Kiffin said. "If the guy taking the shotgun can really throw the ball really well, now you've got a lot of problems. When they take the quarterback out and they come out wide, it's not as hard, but it's still difficult because there's an extra gap.

"When you practice all the time for years, your team practices against normal plays with a guy under center and normal quarterback plays. Now all of a sudden within a week you have to get ready for something completely different. It changes all your fits, it changes all your roles, and I think teams that are really disciplined with their defensive fits and play one-gap football like we do struggle the most against it."

The Vols aren't likely to perform a complete overhaul of a successful defense to address one real shortcoming, but they're also aware it could perhaps use some tinkering.

What exactly that might mean this week has been kept under wraps by Kiffin, though it could include some new looks in the secondary. The Vols have never hesitated to move around Berry or use him against the run, and with safety Janzen Jackson back after missing the last three games, they could be free to get even more creative again.

"Right now, (defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin) is putting in a new type of plan," Berry said. "It's kind of simplifying it for us and making sure everyone just understands, 'You're in this gap, you're in this gap, you're in contain.' He's really just breaking it down so we don't have to do too much thinking on the Wildcat.

"(Stopping it), it's just all types of stuff. It's like so many keys are going on in that one play, you just really have to settle down and pay attention to the right stuff."

The Vols have clearly given it all their attention this week. The first step was merely identifying there was a problem.

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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