Tennessee Volunteers College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Tennessee Volunteers Biggest Key: Offense
Just get the thing to work. Tennessee isn’t winning the national title this season. It’s not going to win the SEC Championship, and unless it catches a few monster breaks, it’s not going to win the SEC East.
The goal under new head coach Josh Heupel has to be to throw a scare into the rest of college football as Tennessee shows what’s coming. The offense has to look like it might be a few clicks away from being a problem.
The Tennessee fan base needs to once again know it’s like for the O to come up with 30 or more points on a consistent basis.
Obviously everyone wants to win now, but if the offense can hit on third downs – Tennessee was MISERABLE at moving the chains, and UCF was first in the AAC and 11th in the nation on third down conversions – and if Heupel can bring the nation’s No. 4 passing attack from Orlando to Knoxville, then Year One will be a success.
Tennessee Volunteers Biggest Key: Defense
Take the ball away. The UCF defense had a whole slew of problems last year under Heupel, but it occasionally made up for them with a bunch of takeaways.
Tennessee’s defense had a whole slew of problems, and it didn’t get the takeaways with just 12 on the season.
Time of possession never mattered at UCF, and last year Tennessee only had the ball for just under 28 minutes per game. If the D is going to be on the field for that long, it has to generate big plays, and the Vols were 1) horrible on third downs and 2) came up with just ten takeaways and no more than one in any of the last seven games.
Tennessee Volunteers Key Player To A Successful Season
QB Hendon Hooker, Sr.
Or Harrison Bailey, or Brian Maurer, or Joe Milton. Every coaching staff in the transfer portal era knows what’s on the line when they come up with a depth chart, but there’s a little more on the line here. The split-second the Vols announce a starter, the circling vultures are going to pounce.
And even then, no pressure, QB1 – be amazing, or the fan base is going to want to change things up almost instantly.
Bailey would be the call to grow into the job, and Milton would be the push-through-the-pain-for-a-possible-massive-payoff pick, but Hooker is the guy who seems to be the best early fit.
He ran for over 1,000 yards and 15 touchdowns at Virginia Tech, he hit 63% of his passes for close to 3,000 yards and 22 touchdowns with just seven picks, and when he was healthy and right, the team won.
Tennessee Volunteers Key Game To The 2021 Season
at Florida, Sept. 25
You want to make a big splash? You want to show that it’s football time in Tennessee again? Finally beat one of the program’s big three again.
The Vols have to go to Alabama and they get Georgia at home, but out of the three – especially early in the season – the Gators might be the most gettable, even on the road. Tennessee has lost four in a row to Florida, 15 of the last 16, and hasn’t won in Gainesville since 2003.
2004 was the last time the Vols beat Bama, and it’s been four years since they took out Georgia.
– Tennessee Volunteers Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Tennessee Volunteers Fun Stats
– Field Goal Attempts: Opponents 19-of-22 – Tennessee 5-of-9
– 3rd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 98 – Tennessee 31
– Time of Possession: Opponents 32:03 – Tennessee 27:57