All for Tennessee
Fansided

Tennessee football vs. TTU: 10 keys to the game

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 09: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a touchdown during the game against the Indiana State Sycamores at Neyland Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 09: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a touchdown during the game against the Indiana State Sycamores at Neyland Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 10
Next
Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel during a game against Pittsburgh at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.Kns Tennessee Pittsburgh Football
Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel during a game against Pittsburgh at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.Kns Tennessee Pittsburgh Football /

9. Focus and motivation for Vols after loss

We’re sticking with mentalities as we focus on the early keys to the game. Tennessee football comes in obviously not worried about confidence against an FCS program. However, overconfidence matched with a lack of motivation can be a deadly combination, even when you face a team like the Golden Eagles.

UT is coming off a loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers. They begin SEC play next week against the Florida Gators. In between, they have this FCS game that they have to play since it’s on the schedule but nobody really wants to play.

How will the Vols respond to this? In our preseason game-by-game breakdowns of the schedule, we had this as a circled win and next week as a circled loss. It’s hard for the Vols to be motivated at all if they know they’re part of two circled games, but then you can add in the looking-ahead factor when the circled loss is next and at least against an SEC team.

Simply put, the way Josh Heupel’s team approaches this game could be problematic. Now, the Vols have faced FCS teams in the past coming off a loss, and it didn’t matter. We can’t be sure that’ll be the case this time, though.

Home/Vols Football