One extremely important thing the Tennessee Vols need to do to beat Pittsburgh
The Tennessee Vols cruised to an easy win against Ball State in their season-opener last week, but things will be tougher in week two. Tennessee is set to hit the road to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers, a team the Vols lost to last season in week two. Pittsburgh is coming off an emotional win […]
The Tennessee Vols cruised to an easy win against Ball State in their season-opener last week, but things will be tougher in week two.
Tennessee is set to hit the road to take on the Pittsburgh Panthers, a team the Vols lost to last season in week two.
Pittsburgh is coming off an emotional win against the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Backyard Brawl. The Mountaineers gave the Panthers a tough game, but Pittsburgh ultimately prevailed with a 38-31 win at home.
One of the reasons Pittsburgh escaped with a win was because West Virginia struggled with crowd noise.
The Mountaineers had five false starts and two delay-of-game penalties against Pittsburgh. In a close game, those penalties can be the difference. And it's certainly reasonable to suggest that those seven pre-snap penalties are what cost West Virginia a win.
Tennessee didn't have any pre-snap penalties against Ball State, but they didn't have to deal with crowd noise while on offense, either.
"When we are able to play with tempo, we want to play with tempo," said Heupel earlier this week. "I thought the other night we were pretty efficient in handling that. We had no pre-snap penalties, we were in the right alignment for the most part."
Things will be tougher against a Pittsburgh crowd that's eager to prove they can impact big games.
The Vols, however, aren't too concerned about the Panthers faithful.
Tennessee offensive lineman Cooper Mays told reporters this week that the teams' experience in road games against Florida and Alabama has the Volunteers prepared for the trip to Pittsburgh.
"I'm very prepared," said Mays. "I finished out the year with a lot of away games last year in some pretty big environments. I played against Florida, Alabama, and Kentucky on the road, and some pretty hard games. I think we are prepared."
Avoiding pre-snap penalties will be key for the Vols against Pittsburgh. The last thing they want to do is end up in unfavorable second and third-down situations due to penalties.
Pittsburgh isn't an SEC team, but their fans can still get loud. The atmosphere for the West Virginia game was terrific and I expect the same for the Tennessee game. The Vols should be fine, but dealing with the noise will still be something that UT will need to focus on.
Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
