Is there anything more frustrating than seeing a promising drive derailed by an obvious fake injury? Tennessee ran into that a few times during the 2021 season — the first year under Josh Heupel, who runs a lightning fast offense built on tempo.
The idea is simple: the less time a defense has to line up, the more advantage the offense has. Defenses across college football have countered by faking injuries. Most teams do it, some more than others. Heck, Tennessee has done it a time or two. All it takes is a player hitting the ground with a “cramp” and boom, here’s your free chance to regroup, sub and get back into position.