Tennessee football vs. BYU: 10 keys for Vols and Cougars

On Saturday, the Volunteers will try to rebound from a horrible opening loss. Here are Tennessee football’s and Brigham Young University’s keys to the game.

Saturday’s game between Tennessee football and the BYU Cougars was always a game the Vols needed to win if they wanted to prove they had taken another step under head coach Jeremy Pruitt. Now, after their upset loss to the Georgia State Panthers, it’s one they have to win.

However, BYU is walking in with a similar sense of urgency following their loss to the Utah Utes to open the season. As a result, this game is much more intriguing than it might have been, even if it features two unranked 0-1 teams.

What does Tennessee football need to do to avoid another upset? Well, in this case, seeing as how Vegas has set the line anywhere from one to three points, a BYU win would not be a major upset at this point.

So here’s a better question. Simply, what does either team need to do to win? Straightforward, right? That’s where we’re at given what happened to Rocky Top last weekend, and it doesn’t even matter that BYU lost its opener. They at least lost on the road to a ranked team who is a contender to win its conference.

Anyway, as we get set to bring you our keys to the game, we’ll be able to base them more on what we saw last week than what we saw all of last year. At least we have an idea of these teams, now, even if it’s only after one game.

We’ll take in mentality, mismatches, perceived strengths and weaknesses and coaching all into account, as we usually do. And every little thing in this one will be magnified now since both teams are a bit desperate.

Who will handle the desperation better? Which team can get a bit of a rebound? Let’s break all of that down now. These are our 10 keys to the game between the Vols and BYU Cougars in Tennessee football’s second outing of the season.