Biggest Areas Vols Need to Improve in 2018

Scoring Points

You can’t win games if you don’t score points. You can rack up all the yards you want, but if you can’t get points out of all those yards, it doesn’t matter.

Last season, Tennessee didn’t do much of either of those, however. The Vols were last in the SEC in both offensive yards per game (291.1) and points per game (19.8). Both of those numbers were some of the worst averages in all of college football too. The Vols’ offensive yards per game was the sixth-worst among 130 FBS programs, and they finished tied for 118th in points per game.

You don’t need to total a lot of yards in order to score a lot of points, but the two do usually go hand-in-hand. The Vols need to find ways to score more points in 2018, whether that’s on offense, defense, or special teams. Tennessee managed a mere 42 points total in three games in October, and they scored 20 or fewer points in half of their 12 games last year. They managed only 14.1 points per game in SEC play.

Scoring more points than your opponent is the basic premise of every football game ever played. The Vols didn’t do that nearly enough last season, and it started with their putrid offense. That needs to improve in a big way in 2018.