Tennessee football: Five reasons to believe Vols can turn season around

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
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Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images

A horrible loss to the Georgia State Panthers has Tennessee football fans in a panic. But the Volunteers can turn things around. Here is a look at why.

Newsflash, everybody. Upsets happen. And they happen in every sport. Tennessee football is not the first and will not be the last team to suffer a horrible upset to open the season. And if they turn things around to have a good season, they won’t be the first or last team to do that either.

Yes, there is reason to panic after losing to a Sun Belt team that went 2-10 last year. And it’s even worse because the game wasn’t even as close as it looked. But that does not mean that Jeremy Pruitt’s second season is now a complete loss.

There are still 11 games left to play. Tennessee football upset two top 25 teams in Pruitt’s first season, one on the road, as it stumbled to a 5-7 year. Does anybody really believe he can’t improve things when he did that?

Lots of factors were at play in Saturday’s loss, and as they try to get back on track, there are lots of other things working in their favor. In this post, we’re going to keep the optimism up by talking about the reasons they can turn things around.

Now, this doesn’t mean that there are no criticisms after what happened. And the loss is inexcusable. It also doesn’t mean that there aren’t tons of areas where the Vols need to improve dramatically, but we have every reason to believe they can do it.

But it does mean that Rocky Top is not done yet, and they haven’t completely hit rock bottom either. There is plenty of time to rebound from this, and we have lots of evidence that shows they can rebound. So let’s go ahead and break that down. Here are five reasons to believe Tennessee football can turn things around after the Vols’ loss to the Georgia State Panthers.