Larry Scott, Vols offensive coordinator, has tough act to follow
John Adams
Larry Scott, Tennessee’s new offensive coordinator, has a tough act to follow.
Go ahead, say it: “Huh?”
Mike DeBord might be the least appreciated coordinator in Tennessee history. For proof, you only had to tune in to any postgame talk show last year when callers, in various stages of alcohol-enhanced insight, would detail UT’s offensive ineptitude.
If you had no context for the critiques, you would have assumed the Vols had just suffered through a shutout while struggling terribly to advance the ball beyond midfield.
Never mind if Tennessee’s defense often had spent the game giving up yardage in double-digit chunks. The offensive coordinator invariably was targeted as the source for Tennessee’s failure during its 9-4 season.
But such postgame evaluations rarely were based on statistical evidence.
UT scored 473 points last season. That was second only to the 1993 team (484 points).
Tennessee’s 1998 national championship team scored 431 points. In 1997, UT had All-American Peyton Manning at quarterback, offensive guru David Cutcliffe calling the plays and an offensive depth chart manned mainly with future pros. And it scored 45 fewer points than it did in 2016.
Last season, Tennessee capitalized on occasional encounters with flagrantly incompetent defenses. But its stats weren’t compiled solely against the likes of Kentucky and Missouri.
Not since 1990 had Tennessee scored as many points (38) as it did against Florida. Only Alabama, in the SEC championship game, scored more on the Gators, who held eight of their other opponents to 14 points or fewer.
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DeBord won’t be picking apart the Gators this season. After last season, he was hired as the offensive coordinator at Indiana. Coach Butch Jones replaced him by promoting tight ends coach Larry Scott.
It was a curious hire given Scott’s background. He never had been a coordinator at the college level, and his last coordinator’s job was in 2004 at Sebring High School in Florida.
Obviously that leaves Jones wide open to second guessing. Remind you of anything?
When Jones hired DeBord as his offensive coordinator after the 2014 season, DeBord wasn’t even coaching. He had spent his two previous years working as a sports administrator at Michigan, where he was the offensive coordinator in 2008.
Such hires don’t evoke celebrations. With an opportunity to hire some offensive wiz, Jones had selected an old coaching buddy who was out of the business.
But in DeBord’s first season at UT, his offense rang up 457 points. That was the third-most points ever scored by a Tennessee team.
No matter how many points the Vols scored, many fans never changed their perception of the offensive coordinator. He was an out-of-the-business coach whom Jones had offered a helping hand.
In fact, the stats prove DeBord was one of Jones’ best hires. Maybe stats eventually will back up his hiring of an offensive coordinator with no college experience in that role.
But until then, Scott is a former high school coordinator with a tough act to follow.
Reach John Adams at john.adams@knoxnews.com or 865-342-6284 and on Twitter @johnadamskns.
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