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LSU football: Tigers and Volunteers breakdown with UT writer

By Gabe Henderson

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker (5) congratulates Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy (15) on his touchdown during the first half of a game between the Tennessee Vols and Florida Gators, in Neyland Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.Utvsflorida0924 02243
Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker (5) congratulates Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy (15) on his touchdown during the first half of a game between the Tennessee Vols and Florida Gators, in Neyland Stadium, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.Utvsflorida0924 02243 /
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Sep 24, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers fans sing the Nation Anthem before a game against the New Mexico Lobos at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 24, 2022; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; LSU Tigers fans sing the Nation Anthem before a game against the New Mexico Lobos at Tiger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /

LSU football has gotten off to a scorching start to the season. The Tigers have put the crushing Week 1 defeat to Florida State behind them and they’ve now won four games in a row. Brian Kelly’s team was truly tested in its first away game last weekend, where it found itself in a 17-0 hole against Auburn. The Bayou Bengals fought back with grit and determination to win the football game 21-17 and break into the AP Top 25 Poll for the first time this year.

Now, LSU faces its toughest test of the year as No. 8 Tennessee strolls into Baton Rouge. There is a lot of hype around the Tigers right now, understandably so considering the streak. However, they’ll be classified as either contenders or pretenders based on their performance against the visiting Volunteers. It’s an untraditional 11 a.m. CT kickoff from Tiger Stadium, but that won’t silence what’s sure to be a ruckus crowd for this Top 25 matchup.

LSU football continues SEC play on Saturday against Tennessee. Site Expert Caleb Calhoun from All for Tennessee joins us for a pre-kickoff Q&A!

Tigers fans have read a lot about their team at Death Valley Voice over the last few weeks. Now it’s time to get some insight from the other side of the aisle. In a recent discussion with Death Valley Voice’s Gabe Henderson, All for Tennessee Site Expert Caleb Calhoun revealed his thoughts ahead of the Volunteers’ biggest game of the year thus far.

Here are all of the questions and answers from the chat with Calhoun:

Death Valley Voice: Tennessee got a huge break with a bye week before heading to Tiger Stadium. What are some of the issues that you believe Josh Heupel and his team needed to address during that week off?

All for Tennessee: Their biggest issue was pass defense, but I’m not sure there’s much they can do. The Vols have no No. 1 cornerback, and that complicates things when facing a mobile quarterback like Jayden Daniels because they can’t just freely bring pressure from the outside. What works in their favor, though, is that Daniels is a bit more of an East-West runner than Anthony Richardson, so they may be able to bring more pressure than they did against the Florida Gators.

As for other issues, one you guys are pretty familiar with is one they needed to work on: special teams miscues. The Vols almost blew their leads to the Pittsburgh Panthers and against Florida because of such miscues. At Pitt, they had a punt blocked and then muffed a punt, the latter of which set up Pitt’s game-tying score. Then they let Florida recover an onside kick late, which almost allowed them to come back from 38-21 down. So in terms of a fixable problem, special teams miscues are probably the biggest one.

Finally, they need to clean up their penalties. UT commits seven and a half penalties a game, surrendering 71.5 yards per game. That’s No. 107 and No. 113 in the nation in terms of fewest penalties and fewest penalty yards per game respectively.

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