3. At Kentucky Wildcats
One of Tennessee football’s biggest wins last year was a 24-7 dominating outing over a Kentucky Wildcats team that was the best in years. It was a major testament to Jeremy Pruitt and what he was building. That team was very good and proof of Mark Stoops’s years of work finally paying off, as he went 10-3 and had his team finish off in the top 12.
This year, the Wildcats have to replace half their starters on offense and a ton of their guys on defense. They relied on deep rotations last year defensively, so there are players back, but that lack of depth that carried them is gone.
As a result, you would think the Vols should win by an even greater margin. But this game is in Lexington, and it’s worth noting that Stoops has already gotten better with previous Wildcats teams in seemingly rebuilding years. His first bowl appearance with them, in 2016, was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
That makes this game difficult just like the BYU Cougars game. And just like the BYU game, losing it means the Vols have to upset somebody somewhere else to have a winning record in the regular season this year. As the third to last game of the year, though, scheduled for Nov. 9, we will already mostly know how crucial this game is for UT.
We have the Wildcats ahead of the Cougars because conference games, and in particular divisional games, always are more important when there’s a tiebreaker needed. Add in the fact that UK is technically a rival, and they are clearly a more important game for the Vols than BYU.