There are many reasons for Tennessee football starting 0-2. But the biggest one is extremely obvious. The Volunteers have too many turnovers.
It’s the oldest cliche in the sport. Every casual fan knows that it’s the biggest indicator of a team’s success. And in Jeremy Pruitt’s second season, it is applying to Tennessee football through the first two weeks of the season.
The Vols may have issues with linebacker development, running the ball on short-yardage plays, and lapses in the secondary. But the simple reason they are 0-2 instead of 1-1 or even 2-0 is turnovers. Seriously, that’s it.
UT out-gained both the Georgia State Panthers and the BYU Cougars in total offense, and they led both teams at halftime. BYU was worse because they had a two-score lead at halftime and were set to get the ball back to start the second half. And they lost both games.
You can point to lots of things, but Tennessee football’s turnover margin is why they lost. They were minus-two against Georgia State, and they were minus-one against BYU. Boom! That’s the only real difference.
The Vols minus-three turnover margin is tied for No. 113 in the nation. Now, again, it’s just the margin. They are only tied for No. 84 in the nation with four turnovers lost on the year, which is not good through two games, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. They also just happened to be tied for last in turnovers gained.
And yes, the turnovers have all been critical. Let’s start with Georgia State. Ty Chandler had a fumble on the second play of the game to spot them a 7-0 lead. After that Tennessee football scored on back to back touchdowns. Everything that led to the Panthers having a 28-23 fourth quarter lead stemmed from that turnover.
If it doesn’t happen, then Jarrett Guarantano’s second turnover, which came when that 28-23 score hit, doesn’t happen because UT doesn’t need to throw it right there. They run the ball and move it down the field, likely controlling the game.
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Meanwhile, in the second game, the only thing that kept BYU in it was a Guarantano interception to start the third. If that pick doesn’t happen, then at the very worst, the Vols are up 16-6 on them late in the game, and that deep pass to set up the game-tying field goal is irrelevant.
By the way, we didn’t even get into the four failed fourth downs of the Vols. That resulted in them leaving three points on the board against Georgia State and six points on the board against BYU. So take away Chandler’s fumble and that first failed conversion against GSU, and UT has a 26-21 lead late. They wouldn’t lose that one.
Meanwhile, if Pruitt kicked two field goals on those fourth down plays, or if the Vols just converted them to get closer, then they would be up 22-6 if you took out that interception. Simply put, this is how close UT is to being 2-0.
None of this rocket science. Turnovers have cost Tennessee football to start the season. Well, turnovers and the failure to force turnovers. If they slightly cut down on the first part, improve dramatically on the other part and have a better red zone offense, they can easily get better.
In fact, those three things would have led to them dominating GSU and controlling BYU enough for people to believe that they are still a legitimate team. That may be a sign of encouragement for Tennessee football, but they’ve got to start showing it. Otherwise, it’s all going to be irrelevant.