Tennessee football: 10 offseason improvements Vols must make before 2019

9. Handling success

Nobody who saw the Vols play this past year would be surprised by such a statement. After a blowout loss to the West Virginia Mountaineers, they made it to 2-1 by beating the ETSU Bucs and the UTEP Miners. At that point, feeling themselves a bit, Tennessee football got dominated by the Florida Gators.

They fell to 2-3 after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs, but coming off a bye, they upset the Auburn Tigers. That should’ve signaled a turning of the corner, and a loss to the Alabama Crimson Tide shouldn’t have changed that. But they were still feeling themselves and blew a close one to the South Carolina Gamecocks before a hideous win over the Charlotte 49ers.

A week later, though, the Vols scored a huge win over the Kentucky Wildcats, and at 5-5, they were feeling themselves a bit. All that followed were blowout losses to the Missouri Tigers and Vanderbilt Commodores.

So after two big wins, the Vols lost two straight games both times. And they looked ugly in a third after the first one. That’s not a good look, and they have got to be better at handling any success heading into this year. Sure, it was an uphill climb to beat South Carolina, Mizzou and Vanderbilt.

But when you have a two-score lead over the Gamecocks, you should hold it. On top of that, there was no excuse to get blown out by Mizzou and Vandy. And that’s what makes a focus on handling success so important.