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

Similar to Ty Chandler, Nigel Warrior is a guy who was supposed to be a reliable returner for Tennessee football this year. And while he has shown flashes of that, the senior is not what he was supposed to be through four games, and he’s got a lot of things to improve on if the Vols are going to turn things around.

Warrior, as a safety, was responsible for helping to contain Dan Ellington and the Georgia State Panthers’ offense in the opener. But Shawn Elliott used Ellington’s dual-threat abilities to torch the Vols, and while Warrior wasn’t at fault for the linebackers being out of position and the line not getting a push, as a veteran, he was supposed to be good enough to make up for that.

In addition to those issues, he has had random lapses. The biggest one is obviously the poor angle he took on the BYU Cougars Hail Mary pass that set up their game-tying field goal in regulation. Again, that was Alontae Taylor’s fault for getting burned. But Warrior was still there to make the tackle, and if he makes it the clock runs out.

Then Warrior missed an assignment on the opening touchdown drive by the Florida Gators. To be fair to Warrior, he has been solid in many other ways. And he’s dealing with a younger than expected secondary. But he’s got to reach his All-SEC caliber play. Jeremy Pruitt, a secondary expert, should work on getting him back to himself. The bye needs to be about doing that.