Comment from Chattanooga head coach should ease one concern Vols fans about Tennessee's season-opener against Mocs

The Tennessee Vols will open the 2024 season on Saturday against the Chattanooga Mocs.

This is a game that Tennessee should win easily -- the Vols have a significant talent advantage over Chattanooga. As a result, there aren't many "concerns" that fans have for Tennessee's season-opener. The biggest goal is to get every key player some game reps (including the "backups") and stay healthy.

One under-the-radar concern that some fans have is this game turning into a repeat of Tennessee's game against Austin Peay last season.

The Vols had a massive talent advantage over Austin Peay last season, but Tennessee still had to grind out a 30-13 win thanks to a unique game plan from the Governors.

"I think we frustrated them in a lot of ways," said then Austin Peay head coach Scotty Walden after holding Tennessee to 30 points . "We want to be that FCS team that no Power 5 school wants to play. I know my AD doesn't want to hear that, he probably likes those checks. We want teams to think twice before they schedule the Governors because they won't get a team that is going to lay down. They are going to get a team that's going to fight. It's going to be uncommon, it's going to be cutting-edge. We did a lot of things to disrupt their tempo and disrupt their rhythm. Again, I'm just so proud of the kids. They bought into the game plan. I'll tell you one thing, I thought we did a great job as a coaching staff communicating the game plan because it was uncommon."

Earlier this week, Chattanooga head coach Rusty Wright was asked if he took anything away from Austin Peay's performance against the Vols.

Wright acknowledged that he watched the film of the game, but he quickly noted that his team won't be installing a special game plan against Tennessee.

"Well, I watched it," said Wright when asked about the Austin Peay game from last season. "I’ve watched that, UConn, couple more people a little more similar to us. And I’ve watched the Georgias and Alabamas and all that. But Tennessee (didn’t) play well (against Austin Peay). The first drive, I think they dropped three balls dead in their hands. Austin Peay did some things a little uncharacteristic early, schematically, and gave them some issues. But then when they figured it out in the second half, it was some unsound stuff."

“We’re not going to go reinvent the wheel to go play," added Wright. "We got to go do what we do. We got to get better at some things no matter what happens Saturday."

Chattanooga is still going to play hard on Saturday. And they're going to try to win every rep. But they won't be "reinventing the wheel" against the Vols. What Tennessee has seen on tape from the Mocs is mostly what they'll see on Saturday. Which means the Vols should be able to jump out to a big lead early, allowing Josh Heupel and his staff to get everyone on the depth chart plenty of action.

Related: Chattanooga coach references Tennessee's Jim Mora controversy from last season ahead of season-opener against Vols