Tennessee football: Five Vanderbilt Commodores to watch for against Vols

These will be the key Vandy players against the Tennessee football Volunteers.

When Tennessee football visits Nashville on Saturday, they’ll be facing a Vanderbilt Commodores team with a depleted roster. On the heels of firing Derek Mason, Vandy has dealt with an outbreak of opt-outs, injuries and transfers, leaving it uncertain if they will even have 50 scholarship players for the game on Saturday.

Taking that all into account, the Vols can’t afford to lose to this team. It would be the most embarrassing loss of Jeremy Pruitt’s era, including last year’s loss to the Georgia State Panthers, and justify calls to fire him on the spot.

How can they avoid it, though, and which Vandy players could actually help interim head coach Todd Fitch pull off an upset with so few players? Let’s take a look at all of that now. Some of the biggest threats weren’t hard to find. These will be the five key players on Vanderbilt to watch for when they host Tennessee football on Saturday.

6’3″ 218 pounds; Hometown: Azle, Texas

If there’s one positive about the Vanderbilt Commodores’ 0-8 team this year, it’s the fact that Ken Seals apparently plans to stay with the program long-term. The freshman was a bright spot for this team, and even as it was in the midst of a slide, Seals was in the midst of developing. Throw out his most recent performance in a 41-0 loss to the Missouri Tigers.

Before that, Seals had thrown for over 300 yards in three of four games. In the other game, he had 225 yards against an elite Kentucky Wildcats defense. Simply put, he is clearly getting better, and he’s definitely the type of quarterback any defense would have to key on.

Given its horrendous defense against the pass this year, Tennessee football’s secondary can’t take Seals’ talent lightly. The Vols have to make sure the product of Weatherford High School outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area doesn’t go off. He’s already shown he is capable of doing that.