Tennessee football: Five Vols who need to improve most during bye week

We know how good Ty Chandler is. And he’s doing a pretty good job of averaging nearly five and a half yards a carry. However, Tennessee football needs him to show dramatic improvement with the ball in open space, as that’s a big part of their passing game and on their designed running plays to the outside.

Jim Chaney has designed plays for Chandler to catch the ball on check-down routes in open space, and Jarrett Guarantano has hit him a few times. Meanwhile, Chaney has called numerous toss plays that got Chandler the ball and allowed him to run into the secondary. So Jeremy Pruitt and his coaching staff are not at fault.

The problem is that Chandler has not been able to elude defensive backs in open space this year the way he was able to last year when he had three receiving touchdowns in three straight games. And his ability to do that is a big part of the Vols’ offense. Sure, Eric Gray has had some issues like that as well. But he’s still a true freshman.

Chandler, on the other hand, is supposed to be the star. He also has to work on limiting his mistakes, as he committed two fumbles in the season-opener against the Georgia State Panthers. With 282 rushing yards and two touchdowns, Chandler has still been effective. But he needs to at least improve to his elite self from a year ago in the bye.