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Tennessee football vs. Chattanooga: 10 keys for Vols and Mocs

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images /

UT Chattanooga is Tennessee football’s best chance at a win yet. Here are the 10 keys to the game for the Volunteers and Mocs.

Is this the game in which Tennessee football finally breaks through and gets a victory? Nobody thought the Vols would need to face an FCS team to reverse their 0-2 start, but that’s where Jeremy Pruitt’s second team is.

And given the fact that they lost to a Sun Belt team that went 2-10 the year before in the Georgia State Panthers and then lost to the BYU Cougars the next week, this game is in no way a given. The Vols, after all, have lost to two non-Power Five schools.

So as they get set for their final game before SEC play, Tennessee football has a lot of work to do. They will have to be ready for UT Chattanooga, a game that was once an SIAA and Southern Conference rivalry way back in the day.

In fact, when this was a rivalry, the Vols were in worse shape than they even are in now. And even after it stopped being a rivalry, Doug Dickey’s first team lost to the Mocs in a horrible upset similar to what happened two Saturdays ago.

The Vols are trying to avoid returning to those days. If they are going to be successful in that quest, which looks unlikely, there are a few things they’ll have to make sure happens on Saturday when they face what should be their easiest opponent.

Meanwhile, Chattanooga is coming off a loss to Jacksonville State and is 1-1 under head coach Rusty Wright. They actually do have a chance to pull off the upset over this UT team at Neyland if a couple of things work out their way. But they’ll also have to make sure they take care of certain things.

Anything can happen in this game based on what we’ve seen from the Vols the first two weeks of the season, and we’re going to break down what will determine the outcome. These are the 10 keys to the game for Tennessee football’s third outing of the 2019 season against the Chattanooga Mocs.

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