Trevon Flowers reveals the keys to success against Will Levis, Kentucky offense

No. 3 Tennessee will be looking to stay unbeaten this weekend, taking on its fifth ranked opponent this season when it faces No. 19 Kentucky at home on Saturday night. Stopping Wildcats quarterback Will Levis will be paramount.

Levis has been a huge difference-maker for the Kentucky offense, particularly with his ability to run to pick up key conversions when necessary.

“Obviously he’s a good football player. Smart football player,” Tennessee safety Trevon Flowers said. “Just being able to do our assignment, do our job, communicate to the guys around me and make sure we’re all on the same page. Just prepare. You’ve got to have great preparation. Just like I said, do our assignments, do our job.”

Levis’ rushing totals are marred by 20 sacks; in college lost sack yardage counts against your rushing figures.

So while on paper he’s got 44 carries for -49 yards, don’t let that fool you. He can make you pay. He’s not running as often as he did a year ago, when he carried it about 6.5 times per game (excluding sacks).

To date, Levis has only recorded 4.0 runs per game.

Still, you can bet that Tennessee won’t take him lightly. Especially not on those key third- and fourth-downs, which Kentucky is converting at a 42.7% and 69.2% clip, respectively.

“We’ve got to get off the field on third and fourth down,” Flowers said. “We’ve got to be able to do our assignments and we’ve got to tackle well. Tackling’s going to be huge this game, fitting our gaps, everybody got to do their job, be on the right page. But yeah, we’ve definitely got to get off the field on third down and fourth down. They’re going for it. That’s going to be the key.”

Tennessee will try to stop Will Levis… in style

When the Volunteers line up against the Wildcats on Saturday night, they’ll do so rocking a completely new look.

Tennessee is breaking out its ‘dark mode’ uniform combination with a new twist: black helmets. The team unveiled the new uniform combination on Tuesday evening.

It’ll be a departure from last year’s ‘dark mode’ uniforms, which featured the all black jerseys but still had a white helmet, accented by black on the orange block “T” on the helmet, as well as the helmet stripe.

The two SEC East programs will square off with a 7 p.m. ET kickoff, with the game to be broadcast on ESPN.