Tennessee football at Auburn: 10 keys to the game

8. Vols’ ability to remain focused amidst all the coaching drama

While they may have the confidence to win, the Vols had a lot more coaching drama the past couple weeks that could make this a tougher road to navigate. Such drama could derail the players against a tough opponent.

It was revealed last Friday that all but two of Tennessee football’s assistant coaches rejected proposed pay cuts to deal with the pandemic-related losses hitting the university this year. That distraction, fair or not, drew controversy on its own and may have drawn a wedge between the assistants, even as Jeremy Pruitt defended all of them on Monday.

Could that trickle down to the players? Well, it might. Beyond just that drama, though, there is still all the talk about what should happen to Pruitt. After all, being on a four-game losing streak his third year on the job is not exactly a selling point for being able to keep your job. The outside talk about him has to be reaching many of the players.

When you add in the fact that the South Carolina Gamecocks just fired Will Muschamp, whom Pruitt is now looking like a clone of, there could be even more concern, even if Phillip Fulmer is fully invested in Pruitt. Can players put all that out of their heads? If not, Auburn will dominate.