Tennessee football at Auburn: Vols vs. Tigers 10 keys to the game

Tennessee football visits Jordan-Hare Saturday to go up against the Auburn Tigers. Here are the keys for the Volunteers and AU as they take each other on.

A week ago, nobody would have considered this a game of any significance. Tennessee football was going on a bye with a 2-3 record, and the Auburn Tigers’ only blemish was a one-point loss to a team that was undefeated.

However, that team lost over the weekend, and Auburn, after struggling with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, fell to a mediocre Mississippi State Bulldogs team. As a result, with the Vols coming off a bye week and expecting improvement under Jeremy Pruitt, this game is a bit intriguing now.

Could Tennessee football give Auburn a game at the Plains? What would that mean for the newfound momentum of the program if it happened after such an ugly start to the season? This could all be false hope, but Vols fans need a positive somewhere, and this is how they can get it.

There are numerous factors that will determine if this is actually a game. As a result, the keys to this match-up were actually easier to do than previous ones. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s any easier to predict what will happen. We’ll get to that tomorrow.

But it does make it easier to list all the things that will come into play. As we get set to bring you the important factors in this game, you’ll notice that there’s a wide variety of things taking shape. It ranges from X’s and O’s to numerous outside indicators.

So let’s go ahead and break down what all of those are. And let’s see if they can finally give the Vols some sort of advantages. These are our 10 keys to the game when Tennessee football visits the Auburn Tigers Saturday afternoon.