Tennessee Football Three Keys: Georgia

Tennessee hosts No. 3 Georgia on Saturday in Knoxville. Here are your three keys to a Tennessee win over Georgia.

By Steve Wright

What has been a hard season for the Vols doesn’t get any easier with No. 3 Georgia rolling into town on Saturday. An optimist would say that a date with the unbeaten and lethal-looking Bulldogs is an opportunity to do something special, but that would be a hard sell to the fans that saw the offense bottom out in the loss to Florida before the bye week.

Key 1 – Be ready for anything at QB

As of right now, no one seems to have much of an idea which quarterback will be starting for Tennessee in this matchup. During the bye, Jeremy Pruitt gave equal reps to each of his three scholarship quarterbacks in a kind of mid-season minicamp to try to get some life into his offense. The starter for the first four games was junior Jarrett Guarantano, but he was benched in the crushing loss against Florida in the second half. True freshman Brian Maurer took over before Guarantano came back in later in the game. Redshirt freshman J.T. Shrout has also been given a look this week.

Tennessee needs to find an answer at quarterback and do so quickly. Guarantano hasn’t looked great this season, but he isn’t being given any help from the offensive line either. Throwing either of the freshmen out there would be an incredibly ballsy move for a coach with his job on the line.

Key 2 – Take advantage of the Georgia defensive line

The Georgia defensive line is an odd beast. There is no standout player, but it is a line that is more than the sum of its parts. This does, however, give Tennessee opportunity because there is no one player who is going to take over the game with his play.

The Georgia coaches like to use a scheme to allow their edge rushers room to work. This is a strategy that has worked well this season, but Tennessee knows this Georgia coaching staff and scheme as well as anyone so maybe there is an opportunity to be aggressive and out coach the opposition in this phase of the game.

Key 3 – Stop Mr. Consistent

Georgia QB Jake Fromm is just bubbling away in the background while the likes of Tua Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts tear it up. Fromm is completing his passes at a ridiculous 76% on the season, mainly because he is behind an offensive line that gives him all day to throw.

Fromm is sixth in the nation in completion percentage and, while his yardage and touchdown totals are nothing special, he hasn’t made a bad throw yet in 2019. Tennessee will have to force such passes to have a shot here.

Saturday‘s game kicks off at 6:00 PM CT (7:00 PM ET). Watch on the ESPN Network.

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