Tennessee first-year football coach Josh Heupel didn’t take long Thursday when asked where he wanted to see the most improvement between last weekend’s 41-34 home loss to Pittsburgh and this Saturday’s expected mismatch against Tennessee Tech inside Neyland Stadium.
“The obvious thing is penalties, and the next thing is turnovers,” Heupel said in his final news conference of the week. “Those are both areas we need to be better at once we get into conference play. You can’t lose the turnover battle every week, and then you can’t lose the field position and you can’t change the way the game is played, in particular on third down, with penalties.
“We’ve got to get better in those two areas.”
The Golden Eagles, who have been outscored by Samford and Furman by a combined 78-14 out of the gate this season, could help the Volunteers remedy both predicaments, and a remedy is certainly needed.
Having lost five turnovers through two games and without gaining any, Tennessee ranks dead last among the 130 Football Bowl Subdivision programs with a minus-2.50 turnover margin per contest. It’s only slightly better on the penalty front, with Tennessee’s nine penalties per game ranking 119th and its 89.5 penalty yards per game ranking 124th.