Tennessee football looks as bad as LSU remembers it

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Tennessee and LSU haven’t played since 2011. But in one respect, the Vols haven’t changed.

Check their offense for details.

They struggled then. They're struggling now.

More:Vols have LSU Tigers up next

In fact, they have struggled so badly that fifth-year coach Butch Jones was fired after Saturday's 50-17 loss to Missouri left the Vols at 4-6 overall and winless in the SEC. Interim coach Brady Hoke now has the challenge of preparing them to face LSU on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium.

That struggle is indicative of Tennessee football the past 10 years. The Vols haven’t been able to field a complete team. Sometimes the offense flourished. Other times it flopped.

The extremes are best reflected in comparisons to UT’s 1998 national championship team. In its 13-0 season, Tennessee averaged 33 points and gave up an average of 303.0 yards.

Ten years later, coach Phillip Fulmer was fired after a 5-7 season. But the defense was still playing at a championship level. The Vols ranked third nationally, giving up 263.5 yards per game, or 39.5 yards fewer per game than the 1998 team.

More:Brady Hoke, interim Vols coach, says final two games are about the seniors

As good as that defense was at times, it wasn’t good enough to overcome its own offense. The Vols scored 14 or fewer points in seven games.

Four years later, Tennessee fired another coach, Derek Dooley, who lost seven games in each of his three seasons. The defense, which was historically bad under one-and-done coordinator Sal Sunseri, did in Dooley.

In one especially dreadful seven-game stretch, the Vols gave up 51 points to Georgia, 41 to Mississippi State, 44 to Alabama, 38 to South Carolina, 48 to Troy, 51 to Missouri and 41 to Vanderbilt.

Although the Vols couldn’t stop opponents from scoring, they had no trouble scoring themselves in 2012. They scored 31 or more points in nine of 12 games and averaged 36.2 points per game — three points more per game than the national championship team.

More:Tennessee football sees flurry of decommitments after Vols coach Butch Jones fired

But a year earlier, UT averaged only 20 points per game and scored seven points or fewer five times, even though its offensive lineup wasn’t much different than in 2012. The 2011 defense, coordinated by current Cal coach Justin Wilcox, ranked 26th nationally in total defense.

A coordinator change didn’t work out for Jones, either. In 2015, with John Jancek as defensive coordinator, UT gave up 20 points per game. A year later, under new coordinator Bob Shoop, UT gave up 29 points a game.

While the defense sunk to Sunseri-like depths under Shoop, the Vols cranked up their offense again in 2016. They averaged 36.4 points per game.

After the 2017 season opener, you probably expected more of the same. The Vols beat Georgia Tech 42-41.

That proved to be an aberration, however. Since then, the defense has played better for the most part, though it folded against Missouri and gave up 86 points combined to Alabama and Georgia. But the offense ranks among the worst in the country.

In 2011, the Vols ranked in the bottom 20 nationally in total offense. Again this season, they rank in the bottom 20.

Just the way LSU remembers them from when the Tigers won 38-7 at Neyland Stadium six years ago.

Reach John Adams at john.adams@knoxnews.com or 865-342-6284 and on Twitter @johnadamkns.