Head football coach David Elson surveys Neyland Stadium before Saturdays game against the University of Tennessee, Western lost the season opener against the Volunteers 63-7. ALEX SLITZ/HERALD

Western coach David Elson’s message about how Tennessee handed the Toppers a 63-7 drubbing last Saturday was clear.

Elson said his team played soft — too soft to keep up with an experienced opponent on their home turf for a full 60 minutes.

After holding the Volunteers scoreless in the first quarter, Western (0-1) gave up a combined 56 points in the second and third quarters.

“We played tentative for whatever reason,” Elson said. “For 30 minutes, we competed well…the other 30 minutes of the game was awful. We got physically dominated and it was a combination of mental and physical and just kind of when it rains, it pours.”

After taking a look at game film, Elson said the lone exception was special teams play, where Western’s performance reflected the progress made during the off-season.

“We showed we were capable because on special teams you can watch the film and you can see guys being extremely physical,” Elson said. “Knocking guys down, playing aggressively, running their feet on contact — all the fundamentals you talk about. But then you turn on the offense and defense and it’s just not there.”

Senior quarterback Brandon Smith said the offense’s inability to move the ball was expedited by a slow start.

The Toppers punted on their first three drives and fumbled on the fourth, and they were stopped on their only attempt at a fourth down conversion.

Smith said the offense needs to get out of the gate quicker if they expect to compete with South Florida in Saturday’s home opener.

“We’ve got to start early and start fast,” Smith said. “That’s something that I really, personally, want to work on this week is to get a fast start instead of going out there and getting a feel for things, then getting things going.”

A unit that especially suffered from the slow start is Western’s defense, which forced two turnovers in the first quarter last Saturday, then had to return to the field after the offense couldn’t get points on the board.

Tennessee found the end zone on all four of its second-quarter possessions and had little trouble dissecting Western’s defensive schemes in the second half.

Junior linebacker Mike Gothard said the defense needs to put it all together before having to face a BCS-conference opponent for the second straight week.

“I think our biggest issue were just mental errors and technique stuff,” Gothard said. “We just need to come back and work on the small things. It just seemed like after small errors that they would snowball on the field.”

Elson stressed that there’s plenty of work to do before Western meets South Florida, and that includes finding a balance of physicality in practice.

“You always try to figure out the right mix as a coach of how hard you want to go, how physical you want to be — we probably need to be a little more physical on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week,” Elson said.

Western plays South Florida at Houchens-Smith Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 6:30 p.m.