All the players and coaches have said all the right things for the last two weeks, but the reality is that the Vols are all but out of the playoff picture and they are playing a team they are favored to beat by nearly 40 points.
So how focused and intense will the Vols be. It’s probably not been the greatest two weeks of practice, but Heupel’s history says his team is ready to go against these types of opponents.
Over the last four plus seasons, the Vols have played 14 non-power four games at home and in 12 of them they have ended it early leading by two scores or more at the end of the first quarter. Last season UTEP and Tennessee were scoreless after the first quarter, but Tennessee led 28-0 at the half. In 2023, Tennessee and Austin Peay were knotted up at 3-3 after one quarter.
In those 14 games, Tennessee has scored less than 45 points twice —vs. Austin-Peay and Bowling Green, in Heupel’s opening game.
This year, Tennessee led ETSU 24-0 after the first quarter and scored 72 points total. They led UAB 21-0 after the first 15 minutes and scored 56 points total.
Tennessee has been a fast starting teams with six touchdowns and two field goals on the opening possession games this year. In those eight scoring drives Tennessee has had a play of 25+ yards in five of them (four passes and a run).
There is not an official injury report this week as it’s a non-conference game, but we don’t expect Arion Carter to play as he battles double turf toe. The two weeks off for Carter, who pushed through the pain as well as he could against Oklahoma, has been helpful.
Tennessee likely won’t take chances with others nicked up as well. It would not be surprising to see some on a snap count, but the good news for this team is that for this time of the year they are pretty healthy aside from Rickey Gibson, who is out of the sling, Travis Smith and Jermod McCoy.
Speaking of McCoy, we are told he has done a substantial more amount of team things this week on the practice field. What that means seems to be anyone’s guess. Heupel was obviously not definitive on anything Wednesday on the SEC Teleconference.
“He continues to do more on the football side of it. Don’t have an expectation for this Saturday yet, but, he continues to do the right things to give himself a chance here at the end of the year,” Heupel said.
McCoy, based on his effort, clearly wants to get back on on the field. The question is how comfortable is he with where the knee is? How comfortable are the medical people and how comfortable are those around McCoy with him playing? His knee has had some soreness in it which has been holding him back the last few weeks.
On the facilities front, Athletics Director Danny White made news this week with a message to fans that they are going to conduct a study about adding more seats in the north end zone. Now, who knows if that ever becomes a realistic possibility.
One thing that is on the radar screen is the entry and exit from the south end zone upper deck. That is an area that White has evaluated first hand the last couple of games and has be a discussion point in game management meetings.
They did officially announce that the speech and hearing building at the corner of Peyton Manning Pass and Phillip Fulmer Way will be removed and that will become a green space to help with the traffic flow coming down Peyton Manning into the stadium from the west side of campus.
Yup. Good post.
