College Football

End Zone: UT Rockets

Greatest improvements are made between week one and two

9/5/2013

Coaches like to say the greatest improvements are made now, between weeks one and two. It’s a key point of the schedule in which a staff gets to analyze the season opener and address deficiencies on their team they may not have known existed.

The appearance after one game is UT’s offense demands major reconstruction while its defense needs merely a tweak or two. Don’t count on it. Saturday’s contest at Florida was nothing if not inconclusive, revealing evidence too flawed to allow for clear analysis of a team on the losing end of a 24-6 decision.

Though it’s fair to criticize its high degree of ineptitude given the vast talent it returned, UT had little chance offensively of impressing. Theirs will be one of many offenses to be torpedoed this season by a Gators defense that — hyperbole alert — could shut suffocate a Mid-American Conference all star team.

As for the other defense, UT’s, a respectable showing against a predictable offense should not extinguish preseason concern. Florida with its cadre of fullbacks and tight ends is not designed to make defenses look bad the way, say, Missouri is.

If on Saturday UT slows Missouri’s aerial attack, I’ll be intrigued. If it can’t move the ball against Missouri’s penetrable defense, I’ll be alarmed. For now, I know nothing.

Contact Ryan Autullo at: rautullo@theblade.com, 419-724-6160 or on Twitter @AutulloBlade.