Austin Peay @ Tennessee Volunteers: Game Prediction
Nov 24, 2012; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey IX during the game against the Kentucky Wildcats at Neyland Stadium. Smokey IX is retiring after this game. Tennessee won by a score of 37 to 17. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
The Vols are coming off three consecutive losing seasons and are looking to turn things around under a new head coach. There are probably more questions than there are available answers heading into the 2013 season.
Which quarterback will step up and take the job? Who becomes the go-to wide receiver? Can the defense right the ship after last years disastrous performance?
Tennessee Volunteer fans are some of the most passionate and intense in the country. Many will have unrealistic expectations. Some will think anything that can go wrong…..will. Whatever the expectations, all Vol fans are hoping for success.
The Butch Jones era gets kicked off against Austin Peay on August 31 in Neyland Stadium. Austin Peay will come into Knoxville as a huge underdog. They finished last season 2-9 and 1-7 inside the Ohio Valley Conference. The Governors will be breaking in a new signal caller, as last year’s quarterback Jake Ryan has graduated. The Austin Peay football program also lost a member of it’s family in May when former walk-on defensive end Jeremy Maze lost his battle with cancer. Maze was never able to play a game, as he was diagnosed after his redshirt freshmen season.
The Volunteers offense will come into the season not knowing who their starting quarterback will be. Junior Justin Worley, redshirt freshman Nathan Peterman, freshman Joshua Dobbs and Freshman Riley Ferguson will be competing to earn playing time. After losing Tyler Bray, Cordarrelle Patterson, Justin Hunter, Zach Rogers, and Mychal Rivera, the Vols have a lot to replace. They will look to several returning and incoming wide receivers to become the playmakers of the 2013 season.
The defense is fresh off the worst season in Tennessee history. The 3-4 defense under former defensive coordinator Sal Sunseri did not work, and is now replaced by the 4-3 system under new defensive coordinator John Jancek. A.J. Johnson and Daniel McCullers will lead the Volunteer front seven along with returning defensive backs Brian Randolph and Byron Moore in the secondary.
Game one for the Vols will be a warm-up for the upcoming season. They should dominate a severely outmatched Austin Peay team, regardless of who is behind under center. Butch Jones will start off 1-0 as Tennessee head coach and move onto the next week against Bobby Petrino and Western Kentucky.