| 📈 | Cedric Tillman — The senior receiver has become a focus point of the passing offense once the coaching staff cut down the number of guys in the rotation and Tillman has responded he had 7 receptions for 152 yards and a touchdown at Alabama. The last three weeks, Tillman has 25 catches for 378 yards and 3 touchdowns. |
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📉 | 3rd downs — Tennessee has been bad the last two weeks on defense particularly on 3rd and 7+ where they have given up 18 conversions. At Alabama, the offense was a failure on third and short. In five 3rd and 2 or less, the offense converted once and that was on a busted play. With two more really good defenses the next two games, the offense must convert third and manageable and to avoid playing 100 snaps a game, the defense has to get off the field with the opportunity presents itself. |
↔️ | OL health — That’s the biggest unknown for this team. Alex Golesh says the offensive line is healthy. How effective are Cooper and Cade Mays? Tennessee is expected to start what they said was their best five coming out of fall camp for just the third time this season. |
📈 | Special teams — After some weeks of not being great or even really good, the kicking game bounced back against Alabama and was a weapon. They obviously blocked a punt. Paxton Brooks drew a roughing penalty which both led to points, but Tennessee was good in kick coverage even with Toby Wilson not able to consistently get it into the endzone. Kentucky’s kicking game has helped them this year. It won them the Florida game and the scored a touchdown on a punt return last week so Tennessee’s kicking game will need to be good Saturday night. |
📉 | This series — From the Kentucky standpoint. The Vols have been in arguably their worst decade of football and are 7-3 against the Wildcats the last 10 years. Kentucky hasn’t won back to back games in this series since 1976-77. And they have only had back to back wins 4 times in the history of the series that goes back to 1919. |
↔️ | Crowd noise — Kroger Field won’t be the swamp. It’s not Bryant-Denny but it’s a night game in Lexington and it will be a crowd that’s into the game especially early. The crowd noise gave Florida fits and Tennessee has had their issues with pre-snap offensive penalties. The Vols have been flagged 19 times offensively for false start (14), illegal formation (2), delay of game (2), and illegal snap (1). |
