Tennessee football vs. Missouri: 10 keys for Vols and Tigers

The Missouri Tigers a completely different opponent from the Kentucky Wildcats for Tennessee football. Here are 10 keys for the Volunteers and Mizzou.

There are lots of storylines happening when Tennessee football takes the field Saturday against the Missouri Tigers. It’s Derek Dooley’s return to Rocky Top, and the Vols are trying to build off a major splash with their first-year head coach in Jeremy Pruitt and reach bowl eligibility.

But when kickoff happens, whichever team prevails will have a ton of momentum going forward. Missouri will clinch a winning season and have a strong case of being in the Top 25 considering they will be 7-4 and a terrible call away from 8-3.

Meanwhile, as we said, Tennessee football will guarantee itself a bowl game with a victory. And that’s a minor miracle that Pruitt worked considering what he had to deal with when taking over this job.

As a result, this is a huge November game for both teams. The Vols, though, have to completely change up what they did against the Kentucky Wildcats from a schematic perspective to win this outing. And that’s what makes this game even more interesting.

Our keys to the outcome will go into detail in the numerous ways Mizzou is a different opponent for UT than Kentucky. There are lots of factors at play here, and both teams have a lot they’ll need to overcome to pull out this victory.

The interesting part of this game is that while there are some external factors, the overwhelming majority of the differences come down to X’s and O’s. We usually have four to five mental things in play, but there are only two in this one. And you’ll see why each is important.

So what’s going to be crucial on Saturday for Tennessee football and Mizzou? Let’s go ahead and take a look at all of that here. These are the 10 keys to the game between the Vols and the Missouri Tigers.