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Tennessee football: Five areas of improvement for Vols after second bye

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images
Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images /

Despite the turnaround, Tennessee football still has areas of improvement to make. Here is where the Volunteers should improve after their second bye.

Sure, they are on a three-game winning streak. But Tennessee football has not clinched a bowl game yet. And even as they have won four of five, numerous issues continue to arise at different times for the Vols.

Those issues could prove extremely costly if they aren’t careful in their quest to reach bowl eligibility. In fact, they have come close to costing them in a couple of their wins, so Jeremy Pruitt needs to coming out of his second bye week having shored up such problems.

To be fair, Tennessee football’s issues are significantly less than they were heading into their last bye week, when they had a 1-3 record and two losses at home to Group of Five teams. It’s certainly not hard to be better than that team, though.

But while this Vols team is improved, their four wins in five weeks are against three teams with losing records and one other Group of Five team. So they aren’t necessarily thriving in success with this run.

At this point, Pruitt’s second team should have the goal of getting to eight wins, which is certainly on the table. Sure, a bowl is the first priority, but that’s not what they should settle for. It’s just what they need to make sure they accomplish first.

And to accomplish that, they have to make sure they don’t beat themselves in any way. Even if the Vanderbilt Commodores are falling apart, they have beaten UT in each of the past three years. Meanwhile, the Missouri Tigers are undefeated in Columbia, and the Vols have to go there to face them. So that won’t be easy either.

How can they make sure they overcome those things? What could make eight wins a reality? Let’s break that down here. These are the five areas of improvement Tennessee football needs to focus on after its second bye week of the 2019 season.

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