Tennessee football is back at Neyland Stadium on Saturday night for its fourth straight SEC home game. The Vols host a struggling Mississippi State team as they look to remain at one loss ahead of a critical matchup in Athens one week later.
The Vols came in at No. 7 in the opening College Football Playoff rankings of the 2024 season earlier this week and a loss would sink their playoff hopes while a good performance would give them momentum ahead of the Georgia game.
Taking a look at three keys for Tennessee football to take care of business against Mississippi State on Saturday night.
More From RTI: Tennessee Remains Huge Favorites Against Mississippi State A Day Away From Kickoff
Finish Offensive Drives
Tennessee football largely moved the ball up-and-down the field last week against Kentucky. But they still totaled just seven points in the first half because of a costly turnovers, drives going backwards in the red zone and poor kicking from Max Gilbert.
Mississippi State has the worst defense in the SEC by a long shot so the Vols should be able to move the ball up-and-down the field again. They key is for them to finish drives this time. The good news is that Mississippi State has the worst rushing defense in the SEC and Tennessee’s red zone offense has only been dependable when they can run it right at foes.
With a Mississippi State offense that can score points, Tennessee’s offense has to break out of its first half slump and score points to win this game comfortability. They can score on some big plays but they must finish drives in the red zone with touchdowns to have the big they want.
Bonus points for confidence heading to Georgia if they can throw for some touchdowns in the red zone. That part of Tennessee’s offense has largely been nonexistent in SEC play.
Nico Iamaleava Keep Building Off Of Last Six Quarters
This one ties into the last one a bit and it’s about building momentum towards Georgia as much as it is about knocking off Mississippi State. After struggling to start SEC play, Iamaleava played a strong second half against Alabama before playing his best game of his career last week against Kentucky.
The Bulldogs pass defense is better than their run defense but it’s still the second worst in the conference. Tennessee can lean on its ground game in this game but there should still be plenty of opportunities for the Vols to hit plays in the passing game.
Iamaleava was accurate and decisive throwing the football last week. He needs to be again this week and the Vols’ receivers need to do a better job of catching it than they did a week ago.
Force Michael Van Buren To Make Mistakes
Mississippi State’s offense has been much improved in recent weeks since making the move to freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren. The Bulldogs have been able to move the football well with Van Buren and for as good as Tennessee’s defense has been, most teams with solid passing attacks have at least been able to move the ball against them some.
What’s been particularly impressive about Van Buren is that he’s done a really good of limiting mistakes as a young quarterback, throwing just four interceptions as five games as the starting quarterback.
But Tennessee has the pass rush to put him into tough situations and the Vols’ defense has done an increasingly better job of forcing turnovers as the year progresses.
Forcing Van Buren to make mistakes in this game will be big for Tennessee’s defense to continue its dominance and hold the Bulldogs under 20 points.
