Tennessee football: Game-by-game predictions for Vols 2019 season
Game Nine
UAB Blazers at Tennessee Volunteers
Saturday, Nov. 2; Neyland Stadium; Knoxville, Tenn.
After a season-defining five-game stretch, Tennessee football gets a break from conference play with the UAB Blazers coming to town to open up November. However, don’t just assume this game to be a win.
Bill Clark has built an amazing program at UAB, doing a better job than almost anybody of keeping them relevant after the program was shut down for two years. All he did was win the Conference USA Championship last year in the program’s second season back.
If he can do that, who’s to say he can’t win at a high level again while replacing a ton of talent? That’s especially true when UAB will be psyched to play this game and the Vols will be a bit drained after a brutal October.
We also might want to note that the Vols needed overtime to beat the Blazers the last time the two faced, in 2010, and they only won 17-10 to open 2005. The last time these two faced off in November, however, was during UT’s 1998 national title season.
Prediction
Clark is a great enough coach and familiar enough with Jeremy Pruitt to make this a game for a half. Meanwhile, UAB will be entering this game coming off a bye. Tennessee football will play ugly, similar to how they did against the Charlotte 49ers last year. But they’ll pull it out in the end to get back above .500 after such a rough October stretch.
Tennessee: 27 UAB: 14