Tennessee survived Arkansas 34-31 this past Saturday inside Neyland Stadium largely because the Volunteers collected three turnovers without losing any.
This week, the Vols will face a team that seems to have no idea how to cough up the football.
Alabama and Tennessee are tied for 16th nationally when it comes to their 11 gained turnovers through their matching 5-1 starts, but while the Vols have turned the ball over nine times, the Crimson Tide have turned it over twice. Redshirt junior quarterback Ty Simpson has only thrown one interception for Alabama compared to his 16 touchdown passes, and the Crimson Tide are tied for second nationally when it comes to their plus-1.5 turnover margin per game.
“We need to win the turnover battle,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said Monday afternoon during his weekly news conference. “Ty has been great with the football and has been really sound in his decision making, so we’ve got to go play assignment sound. You’ve got to apply pressure to the quarterback, which is a part of creating turnovers, and you have to do a great job of matching out and making plays on the back end, too.
“We’ve got to put our helmet on the football and get some punches and try to knock it out that way as well.”