Tennessee football at Georgia: Keys to the game for Vols and Dawgs

3. Is the Tennessee offensive line beginning to gel?

Let’s face it. Tennessee football’s offensive line has been horrendous through four games. Jeremy Pruitt and Tyson Helton have been trying to establish a system in which they control the clock by running the ball a lot and wearing down defenses.

The problem is the line has often struggled to keep that up. To be fair to them, they all have limited experience at their spots. Losing Brandon Kennedy for the year after the first game set things back a lot. Trey Smith missed all of spring and half of the Fall while also having to move over to left tackle, so that set him back.

Jahmir Johnson is still figuring things out at guard as well, and Chance Hall is still trying to get back to full health. All of these things have made for lots of issues up front, but you can see the talent there. In all four games, the line has gotten better in the second half. It was just too late against Florida and the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Will the unit finally come together on Saturday? If it does, you could see a dramatic turnaround in the way the Vols play. Their offense was actually pretty good in the second half against Florida, and that’s because the line gelled. So if that continues, you could see a major transformation.