Cutcliffe is living in Knoxville now.......and I do agree with your assessment. I noticed the same things about the safties and our run game. I wish I had an answer.
However, I do love this. Teams have bad games occasionally. Occasionally those times also happens when other teams play good games. UAB ain't that bad and we played average. I was at the game, and I never for the first time thought the game was out of our control. Even at the end of the game, I never thought we would lose. There are a few little thing that need to be tweaked, and we will be fine. Quite honestly, the final should have been about 27-3, but it wasn't, we won, so quit worrying, complaining, and let's move on.
I heard Doug Matthews say on George Plaster in Nashville on my way up to Knoxville that if he had it to do over again, he would savor every win regardless of the opponent and never take one for granted. Sounded like pretty good advice, and as a fan, that's how I'm going to start looking at it. I suggest all of you do the same!