Tennessee football: Five reasons Missouri could upset Vols

2. Missouri can exploit Tennessee’s personnel issues in the secondary.

Speaking of rust, Tennessee football still has questions in the secondary. Last week, Jeremy Pruitt ran Bryce Thompson a lot at safety for matchup reasons. Meanwhile, nickel Shawn Shamburger was out. Thompson and Shamburger, analytically, are the two best players on the team, and neither allowed a touchdown while in coverage last week.

What was the result? The South Carolina Gamecocks torched the Vols with Shi Smith going for over 140 yards and tight end Nick Muse emerging with over 50 yards. Well, this week, there have been no reports on Shamburger being able to get healthy. Even if he is, he’s likely to be rusty given his limited action so far this year, which ties into our previous post.

If he’s not, however, UT has to once again turn to Doneiko Slaughter, a freshman who has potential but is not ready to handle this role. Either way, UT is in trouble. Missouri’s leading receiver against the Alabama Crimson Tide was Jalen Knox, another slot guy who had five catches for 63 yards. Given the Vols’ issues, he could definitely go off again.

Even before the switches, there was concern about Rocky Top’s secondary dealing with the loss of Nigel Warrior, the glue guy who kept that unit together. Shamburger’s absence has only made it worse, and those two thing forcing Thompson to move away from his strength makes this problem three-fold. And yes, Mizzou can exploit it. Our next slide will explain why.