Tennessee football vs. Alabama: 10 keys for Vols and Crimson Tide

7. How much pressure can Tennessee get on the quarterback?

It doesn’t matter if Tua Tagovailoa or Jalen Hurts is playing. Tennessee football is going to have to get major pressure to win. Pressure and containment on Hurts shuts him down. A ton of pressure all day on Tagovailoa, well, maybe could cause him problems. We haven’t seen it yet.

But with the athletes in the Vols’ secondary, pressure may give them just what they need to create a few turnovers that Alabama hasn’t committed all year. The Vols have really come on at getting pressure, improving each week.

They started by setting an early tone against the Florida Gators before all the fumbles ruined everything. But a week later, Darrell Taylor was able to get three sacks. Then came this last week, and Kyle Phillips and Deandre Johnson made huge splash plays.

All of this is being created by the push Shy Tuttle and Alexis Johnson are getting in the middle. Johnson, with that pressure, is actually racking up lots of stats as well. His push allowed everything else to happen in the key strip-sack recovered for a touchdown last week.

Well, in the middle, Tuttle and Johnson could target offensive guard Lester Cotton, who is going to start but is banged up. If they can push him, that might free up those outside guys like Taylor and Johnson. And maybe, just maybe, combined with the crowd noise, it can create pressure to force very rare mistakes from Tagovailoa. There’s one final piece that could make this work, and it’s our next key.