Tennessee football shows promise against Missouri, needs balance for Georgia

After beating the Missouri Tigers, the Tennessee football Volunteers have to work on some things for the Georgia Bulldogs.

As Tennessee football did a great job handling the Missouri Tigers in its 35-12 win, there were a lot of plays that allowed us to see what the Vols are working with this season. It starts with what happened on the ground.

Rocky Top’s run game was exceptional. Eric Gray ran for 105 yards and a touchdown. Ty Chandler ran for 90 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Jabari Small saw some action as well and gained 27 yards on just four carries. Everybody loves to see running backs showing promise, and that is exactly what Tennessee football fans saw against Mizzou.

Running backs were not the only part of the ground game, though. Jim Chaney called six quarterback sneaks, all of which came at the perfect time, and two of them went for touchdowns while four of them were on fourth down, all of which were converted.

Jarrett Gurantano did a great job running the sneaks. He played well all day. It wasn’t anything special, but he helped get the job done. Although he still needs to work on his accuracy going into Athens, Ga. this weekend to face the Georgia Bulldogs, Guarantano was great running the ball. He handled the pressure well there.

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Jeremy Pruitt won the hearts of many with those fourth down conversions. This man isn’t afraid to go for it. He believes in his team, and that gives fans so much confidence. Although the Vols were perfect on fourth down conversions, they were still six-of-11 on third downs. That’s much better than it was at the South Carolina Gamecocks, but it could be better.

If there’s one area that really hurt this past weekend, it was special teams. Brent Cimaglia missed his second of three field goals on the season, and this one was within 40 yards. He is someone the Vols have great confidence in given the fact that he was 23-of-27 last year, but his play so far has been concerning.

UT can’t afford that going against UGA. The Dawg have a solid defensive line and will give Tennessee football some trouble, so the Vols will need the best from Cimaglia. These misses are very unlike him. Everyone has bad games, and maybe the Vols are just lucky Cimaglia had his against Mizzou, but he needs to regain that confidence.

When it comes to the passing game, the Vols need more from their wide receivers against Georgia. Josh Palmer has to get things going. He has great potential along with Brandon Johnson who made that incredible snag against South Carolina. Maybe he will be the Jauan Jennings Saturday.

For Tennessee football to pull off the upset, everyone needs to be on the same page. The Vols can’t just rely on their running game. Georgia will shut that down really quick. They need balance. This is going to be an interesting weekend to say the least for college football fans. We could see an upset, so mark your calendars because this Vols team looks like it has what it takes.