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

9. Fourth down conversions

One of the marks of Tennessee football this year has been their failures on fourth down. They are one-for-five on the year on fourth down conversions, and that one conversion was a tipped pass that should have been intercepted before Jauan Jennings caught it for a touchdown against the BYU Cougars.

The Chattanooga Mocs, however, aren’t much better. They are 0-for-two on fourth down conversions. So combined, the teams are one-for-seven on fourth down conversions, which is a terrible stat line. Jeremy Pruitt, though, consistently shows that he is willing to go for it, and that won’t stop.

If this game begins to get close, the one team to convert on fourth down could be the one who wins. After all, only one conversion is likely in this game given what we’ve seen so far, and even that is a stretch. Neither team has been good on it, and while Pruitt has gone for it five times, going for it twice this early shows some aggression from Rusty Wright.

Little things like these make a huge difference in a close game, and as you’ll see in the rest of the keys, there are plenty of reasons to believe this game will be close. We can also tie this to our previous key, as Chattanooga could get a lot of momentum to add to their motivation if they get a fourth down stop or convert one. So any conversions on fourth down will be huge in this game.