The Cheat Sheet -- Josh Heupel's Vols host Akron
Josh Heupel and the Vols look to go to 3-0 as they host Akron in a final tune up before the start of SEC play.
So what’s key for Tennessee, ranked 15th, to get to 3-0 for the just the second time since 2004? We look at four of them in what we like to call the Saturday Cheat Sheet.
Clean it up
Tennessee had way too many self inflicted wounds in their 34-27 overtime win over Pitt. From special teams blunders, to penalties, to busts Tennessee was far from clean in week #2. So the challenge this week is to clean up the correctable mistakes. Heupel said he didn’t like the way his team went about practice a couple of days during Pitt preparations. That has to be better. Hendon Hooker needs to be sharper to start games. He’s not been as accurate and you would expect him to be and coaches said for the first two weeks they have had to get him to clean up some fundamentals early in games.
The Vols are a 50 point favorite which means you can be pretty sloppy and still win the game. Tennessee doesn’t need to be sloppy, they need to learn from some of their messes last week and clean things up this week before diving into conference play.
Continue developing depth
Playing a bunch of guys this week doesn’t necessarily translate into having more depth against Florida. The coaching staff, especially the offensive staff really shrunk things at Pitt playing just 15 players and two of those were for less than 10 snaps so it was basically 13 guys. Only rotation was at tight end and running back. They should have every opportunity to play a bunch of guys this week. And this staff should take full advantage of that because with a month of conference games in October, it’s going to be hard to audition anyone for more playing time. It’s why you should play everyone you can to see where they are at and how much they have improved the last two weeks.
Seek answers at corner
Warren Burrell isn’t playing with confidence and isn’t expected to start. Kamal Hadden is, but is probably making more mistakes than anyone knows. And behind them you don’t really know who can do what. After a underwhelming debut at corner against Ball State, Christian Charles went to the bench and only played two snaps at Pittsburgh. Where is his confidence? Where’s the engagement level for Brandon Turnage who didn’t play week two and barely played week one. The bottom line is that you need more help at corner and any potential candidate needs to get opportunities this week before hosting Florida and heading into the conference run next week.
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You can’t find more answers if you don’t try. Willie Martinez should try more guys at cornerback this week.
End it early
In week one, Tennessee left no doubt early. The Vols prepared with maturity and wereready to play out of the gate shocking Ball State in the first quarter. Tennessee should have the opportunity this week and they need to do just that.
Last week was a reminder that the favored team should not let teams hang around. Tennessee can’t let that happen which is why they need to come out of the gates flying.
This is a game where you have to make your own juice. It won’t be a rocking crowd. Tennessee must bring their emotions and created their own juice and end things early turning their attention to Florida.
