College Football News Preview 2020: Tennessee Volunteers Keys To The Season
Biggest Key To The Tennessee Volunteers Offense
There has to be some consistency to the passing game. It was the best passing season by the program since 2016, but there were too many strange outings when the thing just didn’t seem to work.
The passing offense wasn’t all that bad early on, and Tennessee lost the first two games. It pushed the ball down the field against Georgia, and the team got blown out. It didn’t do a thing against Vanderbilt, and it was a win.
The Vols just never seemed able to get the same performance twice, and that might be even harder this year with receiving corps full of new parts.
Biggest Key To The Tennessee Volunteers Defense
Generating a bit more of a pass rush from the front three would be nice. It’s not totally necessary – the defense was able to manufacture pressure from all sides – but the line only generated 9.5 of the team’s 34 sacks.
It’s not really the job of the line to hit the quarterback – that’s mostly for the linebacking corps to deal with – but there’s enough experience and enough options returning to start doing more.
LaTrell Bumphus did a decent job at generating tackles for loss, and tackle Greg Emerson came up with a few, but again, it was mostly up to others to get into the backfield. Even so, the overall D worked – it improved the pressure over the last few years.
Key Tennessee Volunteers Player To A Successful Season
WR Josh Palmer, Sr.
The quarterback situation will figure itself out. Jarrett Guarantano is good enough to handle the gig, but if someone else rises up and takes over, that just means the competition level was just that good. But it won’t matter all that much if the way-young receiving corps isn’t great.
There’s a ton of talent from the recruiting class along with some nice parts that looked okay last year, but Palmer has to become the No. 1 guy. He finished second on the team with 34 catches for 457 yards and a score, but he has the deep play ability to do more. The team needs his veteran presence as the go-to guy.
Key Game To The Tennessee Volunteers Season
Florida, Sept. 26
Losing 13 straight to Alabama stinks, and it would be a massive deal if the Vols could beat Oklahoma to start the season, but taking out Florida in the SEC opener would be massive.
The Vols got crushed by the Gators 34-3 last season for their third loss in a row in the series and their 15th loss in the last 16. With winnable games against Missouri and at South Carolina to follow, there’s a chance for a big start to the conference season.
– Tennessee Volunteers Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2019 Tennessee Fun Stats
– Fumbles: Tennessee 16 (lost 7) – Opponents 10 (lost 4)
– 4th Down Conversions: Opponents 13-of-28 (46%) – Tennessee 2-of-12 (17%)
– Tennessee 2nd Quarter Scoring: 110 – Tennessee 2nd Half Scoring 115