Quote from Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle shows why Tennessee's tempo will likely never again be as fast as it was in 2022
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Over the last few seasons, the Tennessee Vols‘ offense hasn’t operated at the same tempo as what we saw in 2021 and 2022.
The Vols still use an up-tempo approach at times, but they also slow things down now, too.
There are a couple of reasons for that. For one, a change that recently came to college football essentially allows the defense a free substitution if an offensive play finishes out of bounds on the offensive team’s side of the field.
Secondly, and more importantly, defenses are able to communicate exactly what the offense is doing thanks to in-helmet communication and iPads on the sideline (which were introduced in 2024).
Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle explains how iPads and in-helmet communication have impacted Tennessee’s offensive approach
Vols offensive coordinator Joey Halzle met with reporters on Tuesday and he explained how the defense being able to use iPads and in-helmet communication has impacted Tennessee’s offensive approach.
Halzle specifically noted that the improved communication on the defensive side of the ball has altered how Tennessee deploys its tempo.
“Now there’s the iPads on the sidelines, so the defenses are seeing exactly what you’re doing,” said Halzle. “There’s no more communication issues with like, ‘What are they running here? How are they doing this? What’s this play?’ They’re looking at it. So they are ready to adjust quickly, and you see so much more un-scouted looks from defenses — because they also know you’re looking at them, and they feel like they can’t show you the same picture over and over. So for the quarterbacks, the pictures are changing on them now more than they ever have. Which, you know, is double-edged sword here. It’s harder for them because they have more calls, but now your quarterback’s seeing more looks. So it’s like the whole yin and yang of that whole thing. But that’s making it more difficult.
“The green dot, it helps our quarterbacks because they can hear. They can give little tidbits in their ear. But it’s also the [linebacker] has that, too. And if they’ve got a signal, they’ve got a call and they’re getting something from the sideline that’s telling them what’s coming. So there’s the whole battle of that, where we’re getting benefited by the advanced technology, but it’s also right back on the defensive side, too. So it’s not like a negative or a positive, it’s just we’ve had to change. You guys have seen that recently. There’s been differences in how we’ve operated. The way that tempo is legislated is different. It just makes it all so we had to adjust the way we’re playing.”
“You already have defenses in this league that are complex,” added Halzle. “And now they’re just showing you looks that they haven’t shown you before. So they have to be really dialed into what their rule is, not what do I think I’m getting from this defense and this is how we’re playing this play against fill in the blank. But overall, this is how you have to play this play out. And then they have to be able to do it against a look that they have never seen in practice before. That is happening more than it’s ever happened.”
The battle between offensive and defensive coordinators in college football is more of a chess game than it’s ever been.
There are only so many looks that Tennessee can go to when using tempo, which makes it easy for the defense to pick up on what the offense is trying to do. As a result, the Vols have to mix up their looks to keep the defense off balanced.
And that means that we’ll likely never again see Tennessee go all-in on using tempo the whole game — it’s just too easy for defenses to sniff out what offenses are doing now.
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This story was originally published by A to Z Sports on Mar 17, 2026, where it first appeared in the Nashville section. Add A to Z Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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