The Tennessee Volunteers will have no fears of riding into the danger zone known as Tiger Stadium, where the upset minded LSU Tigers await.
Tennessee is one of the best teams in the country as they are ranked No. 8 in the AP Top 25 poll. Tennessee hasn’t been this high in the AP poll since 2006, which ironically was in the same week they faced LSU and lost 28-24.
The hype surrounding Tennessee arises from their elite offense. Tennessee has the No.1 offense in the country coming into this game, averaging 559 offensive yards a game. The Volunteers also rank No. 1 in passing yards, averaging an astonishing 365.8 yards a game. The Volunteers can run the ball effectively as Tennessee is listed as No. 31 for rushing offense out of 131 teams throughout the country, running the ball for 193.5 yards a game. 
To get a better idea of how Tennessee’s offense works, here is Tennessee’s personnel, their philosophy and how LSU can shut down their offense.
Personnel
The heartbeat of Tennessee’s offense, and maybe the whole team, is Hendon Hooker. Through four games this season, Hooker has thrown for 1,193 yards, eight touchdowns and has a completion percentage rating of 71.7%. Hooker has a quarterback rating of 90, which is No. 1 in the SEC and No. 5 in the NCAA as a whole. Hooker is a very elusive runner and has rushed for 175 yards with a touchdown this season and had over 600 rushing yards with 5 touchdowns last season. Hooker’s ball handling is solid too. He’s only thrown three interceptions so far throughout his entire career in Tennessee. All three occurred this past season.  
Tennessee has one of the best wide receiver groups in the country. Although he will be questionable to play due to injury, Cedric Tillman is one of the best wide receivers in the country. Tillman has 17 catches for 246 yards and a touchdown. He hasn’t played since the Volunteers victory over Akron on Sept. 17 when he injured his left ankle. 
Even if Tillman is out, Tennessee will lose no sleep, as the Volunteers still have Jalin Hyatt and Bru McCoy. Hyatt, who is the current leading receiver due to the absence of Tillman, has 325 receiving yards and 3 touchdowns. McCoy has 211 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. Another name to watch out for is Ramel Keyton. Keyton has had 8 catches for 183 yards and an astonishing 22.8 yards a catch.
Tennessee’s running backs have been struggling as of late. Both Jabari Smalls and Jaylen Wright both average under five yards a carry. However, they have gone up against some of the best defensive fronts in Pittsburgh and Florida, which could be the reason for their low numbers. Tennessee is still one of the best rushing attacks in the country due to their schemes, which we’ll get to in a second.
Tennessee’s offensive is good, but it’s shaky. Tennessee has given up eight sacks so far this season, a figure that puts the Volunteers No. 70 in the country in sacks allowed per game. It’s not bad, but it isn’t great either.
Philosophy
Before Josh Heupel became the head coach of Tennessee in 2021, Tennessee’s offense was ranked in the 100’s and never surpassed 400 yards of total offense. In Heupel’s first year, the Volunteers were the No. 9 offense in the country averaging 474.4 yards per game.
Heupel played at quarterback at Oklahoma from 1999-2000, where he was a Heisman runner-up and won the 2000 National Championship. His offensive coordinator was Mike Leach, a godfather of the air-raid offense, the offensive coordinator with the Sooners at that time. After his playing career was over, he started coaching at Oklahoma from 2004 to 2014, where he coached quarterbacks and later became the offensive coordinator in 2011. Before he became the offensive coordinator, he had learned the up-tempo no-huddle offense from Kevin Wilson, the current Ohio State offensive coordinator and former Indiana head coach.
Heupel gained knowledge from the Art Briles’ school of offense. He started to incorporate some of his play calls in his offense when he coached against Briles as Baylor’s head coach. Heupel also began to install more of Briles’ offense after he hired Jeff Lebby to be his offensive coordinator when Heupel was the head coach at UCF. Lebby was Baylor’s passing game coordinator in 2012.
A major component of Tennessee’s offense is the up-tempo, no huddle offense. As stated before, Heupel became enamored with tempo when he coached at Oklahoma. Tempo is used to keep the defense on its heels and limits the processing time needed for the defense to adjust.
The difference between Tennessee and other up-tempo offense is that the Volunteers go even faster than other up-tempo teams like USC or Oklahoma. Tennessee is third in plays per minute as it has ran 2.94 plays per minute since 2021, the best in college football. Tennessee is No. 1 for points per minute, No. 2 in points per possession and No. 5 in yards per play. 
Another major component of Tennessee’s offense is the use of wide splits. A wide split formation is when the receivers are lined up outside of the hashes and outside of the numbers. Wide splits allow the middle of the field to open for passing and running lanes. This is due to the wide splits making the linebackers move farther away from the play. Wide splits also allow for easier screen plays as the field is much more open. Due to Tennessee’s extensive use of 11 personnel, it allows for their zone run schemes and pulling guard schemes to be used successfully.  
Another major component of Tennessee’s offense is its run and shoot passing game. Many of Tennessee’s offensive concepts come from the “veer and shoot,” a version of the run and shoot that Briles’ ran from his time at both Houston and Baylor. The run and shoot is different from most passing concepts because the routes ran by the receivers are not pre-determined. On any given play, several receivers will be given a set of routes to choose from. From there, the receiver will run their route depending on what the defense gives them.
For example, the outside receiver may have two options, to run a streak vertically up the field or a post deep in the middle of the field. If the safety goes over the top of the receiver, then that receiver will run a post route. If the safety stays in the middle of the field and does not go over the top, then the receiver will continue to run straight.
The vertical choice gives the Tennessee a deadly downfield passing game that punishes defenses no matter what they do. Pair this with wide splits and tempo, it puts a ton of pressure on the defense.
How to Stop Tennessee’s Offense
The first thing LSU defense must do is nullify the run. Even though Tennessee is known for their fast pace and passing attack, Tennessee is still a run-based offense. They run the ball on 57% of snaps on the year and can get decent yardage due to the linebackers being so spread out. 
The second thing LSU must do to slow down Tennessee’s offense is to limit the explosive plays. The Tigers will need to force Tennessee into taking 8+ plays to score on every drive. They’ll need to try and keep everything in front of them and play as much zone coverage as they can. With the space in the offense that Tennessee plays with, they can limit your chances to play zone coverage. Their intentions are to attack the one-on-one situations, so when they get you into those situations you have to win.
The third and final thing LSU has to do is make sure that there are fresh bodies on the field when Tennessee has the ball. They are one of the fastest teams in college football this season. This means LSU is going to need to rotate as many fresh bodies as possible. The problem Tennessee presents is the speed and pace they play with can limit your ability to substitute and bring in the right personnel. Whenever LSU gets the chance to rotate, the coaching staff will need to do so.