Tennessee football at Vanderbilt: 10 keys for Vols and Commodores

9. Can the Vols hold onto the ball?

Tennessee football has been horrible at not fumbling the ball this year. The Vols have lost 11 fumbles on the season, and three of their four running backs have suffered multiple fumbles throughout the season.

Yes, this is a big deal. When it comes to interceptions, the Vols and Commodores are both very good at not throwing many. Tennessee’s only thrown four, and two were last week with their backup quarterback in Keller Chryst, while Vanderbilt has only thrown six.

But Vanderbilt also has only lost seven fumbles on the year while the Vols have lost 11, and that is a significant difference. Vanderbilt’s defense isn’t great, but they’ve forced 20 fumbles on the year and recovered nine of them. So this could end up being a factor.

In a questionable match-up like this, one fumble could be the difference, and that favors the Commodores significantly more than it favors UT. As a result, keep an eye on what happens here. The good news is that Tim Jordan hasn’t fumbled all season, and Ty Chandler seems to be relatively consistent at holding onto the ball despite a fluke play against the Kentucky Wildcats.

Taking that into account, especially since those are the two feature backs for UT now, you have to figure that they’ve gotten better at it. But the backups still find ways to fumble on their few carries and change the game, as Carlin Fils-Aime did just last week. That can’t happen Saturday.