The Monday 3-2-1

It's Monday and that means time for the 3-2-1 report. Three observations, two questions and a prediction as the Vols prepare for Kentucky.

Everyone feels better with a win – The Vols were vastly superior in talent and they would beat Tennessee Tech 10 out of 10 times. But after losing three straight games, everyone realizes that winning is the best remedy. You don't know anything new about the Vols, but they did have a nice relaxing afternoon on homecoming.

There's some young players who can help – Tennessee Tech or not, Marquez Callaway should and needs to be the Vols punt returner. Callaway had a 62 and a 52-yard punt return playing the rugby style punts the right way. Nigel Warrior finished as the Vols' leading tackler. Was he perfect? No. But he closes fast in the run game and was a sure tackler on the wide runs. Darrell Taylor showed he could help as well. Tennessee will need some younger players help this team the rest of this season and they will need to be major factors in 2017.

John Kelly is a great fit – Now, I'm not one to say that Jalen Hurd was a bad fit. After all he was less than 400 yards from becoming Tennessee's all-time leading rusher. But John Kelly is a really good fit for this offense. He's a one-cut-and-go guy. He shows good patience and has nice explosion as a runner. Kelly still does not have a negative running play this season.

1 – Can the Vols handle the pressure?

The bottom line is that Saturday is a playoff game for the Vols. The winner Saturday remains in the hunt for the SEC East. The loser is out of the picture. So how does Tennessee handle that hype/pressure this week? This time last week, it was about team meetings and finding lost energy. Two weeks ago with the opportunity to stay in control of the SEC East, the Vols laid an egg in Columbia. Now, the opportunity in the SEC East repeats itself so how does this team handle themselves.

2 – Can Tennessee stop the run?

Kentucky is 31st nationally in rushing offense averaging 215.8 yards a game on the ground. Tennessee has obviously struggled in defending the run giving up 191.7 yards a game. So the question for Saturday is can Bob Shoop's defense defend the run particularly the “wildcat” formation that Eddie Gran's offense uses extensively.

South Carolina showed a formula for defending Josh Dobbs. Teams are going to try and take him away. The Gamecocks assigned a linebacker to him everywhere he went.

Saturday against Tennessee Tech, Tennessee showed more pistol look and less zone read work. Now part of that was because they didn't want to run Dobbs against a team where they didn't need to run him.

Kelly was impressive at Texas A&M. He was more impressive against South Carolina. He runs hard. He keeps the offense on schedule down and distance wise. That's not to say they aren't going to run Dobbs or throw the ball. If they get Alvin Kamara back they certainly will do things with him, but this running game is going to lean on the sophomore from Detroit, Mich., down the stretch with three meaningful SEC games remaining.