Tennessee football is looking to bounce back from last week’s loss at Florida when it hosts UTSA to Neyland Stadium. The Vols are sizable favorites against the Road Runners as they look to show real growth after last week’s struggles.
In this week’s addition of the three keys we’re not just looking at three keys to a Tennessee victory but three keys that would show real improvement from the first three weeks of the season.
Here’s three keys to Tennessee football defeating UTSA in promising fashion.
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Avoid The Extended Offensive Lull
In the first half of each of Tennessee’s first three games, the Vols offense has gone through an extended offensive lull where they not only don’t score for a number of possessions but completely fail to move the ball.
That inconsistency and the lack of answers for it has summed up a great deal of Tennessee’s offensive issues to this point in the season.
The Vols can avoid the lull in a number of ways. Tennessee could successfully lean on its ground or find some consistent rhythm in the intermediate passing game. The latter would be more encouraging but either would successfully get back in the win column.
The one consistency any offensive success would be strong offensive line play. While offensive line success against UTSA wouldn’t answer all the questions about that group it would be a step in the right direction after last week’s poor performance.
Improved Tackling Performance
Tennessee’s defensive issues last week were numerous and abundant but its poor tackling was the most obvious. Both Josh Heupel and defensive coordinator Tim Banks said that tackling was an emphasis this week in the film room and on the practice field.
Returning to the field against a lesser opponent after a week of emphasis on tackling is a recipe for a much improved tackling effort. If the issue persists this week I would view it as a very bad sign for the defense as a whole in the long term.
But I expect Tennessee to tackle much better than they did a week ago. Tackling issues weren’t a problem the first two weeks of the season and really weren’t much of one a year ago.
If Tennessee tackles well against UTSA it’s hard to imagine the Road Runners’ offense having an abundance of success and the Vols not getting the win.
Force A Turnover … Or Two
Tennessee’s defense has forced just two turnovers through the first three of the 2023 season with both of them coming against Austin Peay.
That’s been one of the more disappointing though not shocking parts of Tennessee’s defense to this point in the season. It’s disappointing because despite Tennessee’s defensive issues a season ago they were solid at forcing turnovers. And while the Vols’ secondary wasn’t expected to be vastly improved this season there were hopes that the pass rush would be dramatically improved.
The jury is still out on Tennessee’s pass rush. They looked dominant against outmatched offensive lines the first two weeks but didn’t take advantage of its limited opportunities at Florida. But even when the pass rush has been good, it hasn’t led to more turnovers.
Tennessee forcing a turnover, or multiple turnovers, against UTSA would stem any Road Runner upset chances.
