Tennessee Football: What to expect against UAB

The Tennessee football homecoming is hours away as the Vols look to continue rolling against their non-SEC opponent UAB.

The UAB Blazers have been one of the best teams in Conference USA over the past couple of years. That is still the case this year as they are still near the top of the standings through the 2019 season, so far.

Even though they’re currently near the top in the standings, they haven’t played anyone this year. The best team they have played is Western Kentucky, and Tyson Helton’s offense outscored the Blazers if that tells you anything.

Tennessee isn’t quite one of the best teams in the SEC, but they’re a decent team. If they wouldn’t have had an awful start to the season, then they’d be in the top half of the league, but they’re not.

They might not be ranked very high in the SEC, but they’re playing some of the best football in the SEC right now. They beat Mississippi State, South Carolina, and had the Alabama game in reach halfway through the fourth quarter.

If we’re honest, Tennessee might’ve won the Alabama game if the officials didn’t make certain calls in crucial times of the game in Alabama’s favor.

Anyways, that has come and gone, and it’s in the past, so what will Tennessee do this weekend against UAB.

Well, the defense will continue to dominate. The first thing I would watch for is how the defense plays early. The first quarter especially, can the Vols keep the ball in the offense’s hands and limit UAB’s offense to minimal yards.

If UAB is able to score more than seven first-half points, then it might be a failure for the defense. Of course, there is a lot that plays into that, but if it’s a close game at half time, then the defense didn’t do their job. If it’s a blowout already, then they earned themselves some leeway.

The second thing I would watch for is how the offense works under each quarterback. Every healthy quarterback on the Tennessee roster will likely get some playing time on Saturday.

Who does the offense work best with? Is there a better quarterback between Jarrett Guarantano and J.T. Shrout after this game? I think we would all take Brian Maurer for every game for the rest of the season, but that might not be likely, so we have to look at our other options.

I expect one of these two quarterbacks to run away from the other quarterback in this quarterback battle. At the end of this game, we should know which quarterback that is.

The final thing I’d watch for has to do with Jeremy Pruitt. How does he coach against a team like UAB compared to how he’s been coaching the past few games? Will he keep his foot on the pedal if the Vols pull away in the second half or will he start playing conservative?

I think we’d all like to see the Vols put the hammer on UAB and win convincingly to continue our momentum into the last part of the season.

The Vols need to continue their momentum into the last part of the SEC season with a win against UAB. The Vols need three wins out of its last four games to reach bowl eligibility, and I think the Vols continue to roll this Saturday in blow out fashion.