Welcome back, Joe.
Joe Moorhead, new coach at Akron, will bring his Zips to Neyland Stadium Saturday to see if the Volunteers are better than Michigan State.
Joe Moorhead
Akron lost twice to the Spartans on Saturday past. The game was 52-0. Of greater significance, quarterback D.J. Irons suffered a leg injury in the second quarter and was carted off the field. There is speculation that he is lost for the season.
Yes or no is of some interest to the Volunteers. Irons is a dual-threat. His replacement, Jeff Undercuffler Jr., is more of a pure pocket passer, 6-5 and 230, strong arm, supposedly nimble enough to avoid a train on the siding.
Clue: Moorhead said “We will have to build a game plan around what he does well and minimize his weaknesses.”
The last time Moorhead was in town, he was second-year coach at Mississippi State, about to be fired because he was a cultural misfit in Starkpatch, oops, Starkville.
Why the Bulldogs hired him if they were worried about geography, grits and gravy, we’ll never know. Joe was born in Pittsburg, played at Fordham, was an assistant at Pitt, Georgetown, Akron, Connecticut and Penn State, head coach at Fordham and Mississippi State. He got $7 million to go away. He was accused of being short of discipline.
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Tennessee second looks …
Pitt was very near a 17-0 first-quarter lead over the sluggish Vols when the game started to change. Aaron Beasley put the pads on quarterback Kedon Slovis from the UT 21. Kamal Hadden tipped the pass. Trevon Flowers caught it in the end zone. That was like a wake-up call.
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Pitt tight end Gavin Bartholomew hurdled Flowers on his 57-yard touchdown run. Tre had his head down. He was in poor position to make a tackle. The video made all the highlights shows.
Flowers had very poor position on the punt he muffed. He ran under the ball and tried to catch it too close to his helmet. A weaker man might have melted but he fought on. Teammates recognized that. They were extra happy when it was Flowers who sacked the gutty reserve QB in overtime, the play that virtually ended the game.
“Hats off to Tre making up for the muffed punt,” said Hendon Hooker. “Perseverance, he’s a strong-minded guy. There are a lot of guys on our team who are strong-minded.”
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If that blitz and 12-yard takeaway was the biggest defensive play, a close second was the blast and strip search of Slovis by Tyler Baron a few seconds before halftime. It is wrong to hope a foe gets injured but his absence probably made a significant difference in the second half.
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Jaylen Wright didn’t fumble, not in the conventional way. He was stopped and stood up, then mugged in gang warfare.
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Tennessee is favored by 50 over the Zips. I don’t play that game but half a hundred sounds high. If the Vols light up the scoreboard, Josh Heupel will play everybody who has a number, not out of mercy for Akron but to reward those who have worked hard in practice.
Depth almost always turns out to be critical.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com.