Tennessee football: 5 Vols to watch for vs. UMass Minutemen

Butch Jones and Larry Scott were not smart enough to realize when it was essential for them to hand the ball off to John Kelly last Saturday against the Florida Gators. They can maybe make amends here.

The Tennessee football coaches likely want to save him and use more of Ty Chandler, Carlin Fils-Aime and Tim Jordan this game.

But as we mentioned, the Vols need to be in control first. And while Quinten Dormady is a huge part of that at quarterback, Kelly is the main guy who can help with that. So once again, Tennessee football should turn to him.

Clearly the best playmaker on the field, the Vols need Kelly to break off a few big runs early so they can get in control. Given UMass’s passing offense, they can sometimes score early and hang with teams.

So to get in control Tennessee football needs to control the time of possession and make sure they also score big. Kelly helps with both of those things.

Honestly, at this point, we could just name Kelly as a key offensive player every week given what he’s done so far. And here we are again this week doing it.

If anything, this could be a stat-padding game for the guy to put him on the national stage. But if he does his job, Butch Jones and his staff will pull Kelly by the second half.

And if Kelly does his job, the Vols will be in complete control of the game when they do.