Tennessee football returns to the friendly confines of Neyland Stadium Saturday evening for its 2023 home opener against Austin Peay.
Each week, we’ll take a look at three keys for Tennessee to emerge victorious in its upcoming matchup.
With Austin Peay coming to town there’s no doubt that Tennessee will earn the victory and improve to 2-0. So instead of a traditional three keys for a victory we’re going to pivot to three keys for the Vols to feel good exiting the week two matchup.
With that, here’s three keys for Tennessee to have a successful Saturday at Neyland Stadium.
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Avoid Injuries
This is a simple one but probably the most important one. Last season, Tennessee lost star receiver Cedric Tillman for over a month due to a high ankle sprain against Akron. The Vols are looking to avoid losing any key players in a game that they should win easily.
Tennessee hasn’t had too many major injuries to this point in the season but center Cooper Mays still hasn’t made his season debut and starting linebacker Keenan Pili is out for a couple of weeks.
If Tennessee is going to leave Saturday’s game feeling like it was a success, keeping its top players healthy is priority number two behind winning the game itself.
Bounce Back Performances In The Kicking Game
Tennessee is breaking in three new kickers this season after losing its starting kicker and punter from the 2022 season to graduation.
Indiana transfer Charles Campbell went seven-for-seven on extra points and didn’t attempt a field goal in Tennessee’s win over Virginia. However, punter Jackson Ross and kick off specialist Josh Turbyville struggled in their collegiate debuts.
Ross, an Australian rugby style punter, shanked two of his first three punts for 17 and 27 yards respectively. The redshirt freshman had three other solid punts including a 50 yard one but averaged just 35.8 yards per punt in his collegiate debut.
Josh Heupel chalked up Ross’ poor debut to a player playing his first game of a sport in a new country. That’s a fair explanation and Ross will look to prove it true Saturday.
Turbyville, who is Tennessee’s backup punter, had two of his kickoffs go out of bounds. On one it looked like Tennessee may have been trying to coffin corner Virginia as the kick landed in play and barely trickled out of bounds but Turbville yanked the other one.
Kicking and punting on the road and in close games is harder but for the most part the quality of opponent doesn’t affect specialists. That makes it interesting to see how Ross and Turbyville respond after getting first game jitters out of the way.
Strong Performances From Young Linebackers, Quarterback
There’s a number of underclassmen who will be interesting to watch when they get opportunities against Austin Peay but two positions have amplified significance.
Tennessee touted its improved linebacker depth all offseason and they’ll have the chance to prove it with Pili out. Sophomore Elijah Herring will start in his place but freshmen Arion Carter and Jeremiah Telander as well as sophomore Kalib Perry will all get an abundance of opportunities.
Herring is entrenched as Tennessee’s starter in Pili’s place and Carter appears to be the next linebacker off the bench but it’s unclear whether Telander or Perry is next on the depth chart. It will be interesting to see which earns more reps and how they perform.
Then there’s quarterback where freshman Nico Iamaleava should get extended reps. The five-star freshman is Tennessee’s backup quarterback and while the Vols hope they don’t have to play him in tight games this season, that is always a possibility.
That’s, at least in part, why Tennessee isn’t redshirting Iamaleava. They’re going to try and get him as many in game reps as possible whenever they can. Him performing well and giving his coaches more confidence in him would go a long way to easing the nerves if Milton exits with an injury later this season.
