Tennessee football’s game at the Kentucky Wildcats Saturday is a complete toss-up. Here are the last-minute predictions for the Volunteers in Lexington.
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Tennessee football enters Lexington as a underdog against the Kentucky Wildcats! Apparently, 31 out of 32 is completely meaningless to the oddsmakers this year. That’s how little faith they have in the Vols under Butch Jones.
However, as they say, you don’t win games in Vegas. And the Vols, despite their 3-4 record and 0-4 SEC record compared to Kentucky’s 5-2 record, still have more talent on the field. And there’s not much of a coaching disparity, despite the utter failures of Jones and Larry Scott this year.
As a result, that actually makes this game interesting. One thing working in Kentucky’s favor is that they still feel like they have stuff to play for. Tennessee football may have quit on the season.
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However, the Vols do have the psychological edge in the game with their dominance in the series. So this could go either way. Here are our last-minute predictions for Tennessee football’s game at Kentucky.
1. Tennessee will finally score a offensive touchdown.
The Tennessee football offense has indeed been atrocious. And the Vols don’t have the option of going back from Jarrett Guarantano to Quinten Dormady in this game. However, they will finally break through and score one today. Remember, they have played three of the best defenses in all of college football. Playing Kentucky’s defense will seem easy as a result. So they will score. But…
2. Neither team will break 20 points.
Tennessee football’s offense will get things going again in this game, but they will still have an atrocious performance. Don’t expect them to do anything special. We said in our Week 9 predictions to take the under in this game. After all, not only is Tennessee’s offense bad. But Kentucky’s offense is terrible against solid defenses. The Vols have a solid defense, particularly in the secondary. So they’ll limit what Stephen Johnnson and Benny Snell Jr. can do. It will also result in something else.
3. Both teams will have at least three sacks in this game.
Buckle your seat belts. This is going to be a sack fest. Tennessee football ha slightly underachieved on the defensive line, but with the return of Darrell Taylor, the rotation of him, Jonathan Kongbo and Kyle Phillips will be effective again. Meanwhile, Kentucky’s offense relies on Johnson holding onto the ball to make plays. Because of Nigel Warrior and Rashaan Gaulden containing him in the secondary, that will result in numerous coverage sacks. The Vols, on the other hand, are now short-handed on what was supposed to be a deep offensive line. And Guarantano holds the ball too long. With Kentucky’s major playmakers in Denzil Ware and Josh Allen along with Mike Edwards making plays from the secondary, that calls for them to get a ton of sacks too.
4. Kentucky will win the turnover battle.
Tennessee football and Kentucky are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to turnovers. Kentucky is one of the top in the country in turnover margin, and the Vols are outside of the Top 100. Combine that with what we already mentioned regarding Guarantano, Tennessee’s offensive line and Kentucky’s playmakers, and this one pretty much speaks for itself.
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5.Multiple coaching blunders will affect the game
Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones has single-handedly lost two games with idiotic coaching decisions. Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops lost one game because he forgot that you’re supposed to guard wide receivers. That cost him against the Florida Gators, who also beat Jones due to ridiculous coaching. Simply put, Jones and Stoops are the epitome of the idiotic coaching in the SEC East. And now, they’re paired together. So expect both to make huge coaching blunders that keep the other team in the game. And as a result, the losing side will blame their coach. It will be the right thing to do as well.