3. Discipline from Vols’ edge blockers
Let’s be honest. Edge blocking has been atrocious for Tennessee football the past two weeks. Against the Georgia Bulldogs, Wanya Morris, Darnell Wright and Cade Mays were lining up at offensive tackle at different times, and they committed penalty after penalty while missing block after block, which resulted in Jarrett Guarantano’s three second-half turnovers.
It was worse against the Kentucky Wildcats. Mays moved inside, but Wright killed the opening drive by allowing a sack that knocked the Vols out of field goal range. Morris had a chop-block that set up J.T. Shrout’s desperation interception throw, which led to another Kentucky field goal. A missed block by Morris killed a second-half drive with the Vols still in it.
Other guys struggled too. Princeton Fant was in on that Morris chop-block, and after Morris allowed that sack, K’Rojhn Calbert came in and missed a block, forcing Guarantano to throw a dump-off pass. Mistakes by the exterior line have been critical, and they were superb the first two weeks. Which unit shows up against the Alabama Crimson Tide?
Nick Saban’s team is in the bottom half of the SEC in sacks with just seven. They haven’t been bringing pressure like they used to in recent years. Can UT’s edge blockers have enough discipline to take advantage of that and allow Guarantano some time to make plays? Will they be able to avoid killing drives? That will be key to this game. Cutting down on penalties would be a boost.