Anticipation surrounds the Tennessee football Volunteers at the OU Sooners.
To many people, this is a circled loss for Tennessee football. However, Jeremy Pruitt’s much-improved team is generating a lot of excitement, so there is genuine interest in what his program will do with its first test.
Because of that, Brandon Marcello of 247Sports listed the Vols’ visit to Norman, Okla. to face the Oklahoma Sooners on Sept. 12 as one of the top 20 games for 2020. This game came in at No. 18 and will be the second matchup of the year for both schools.
For Marcello, the anticipation is all about seeing whether or not Tennessee football is truly back. The Vols are tepidly in many analysts’ preseason top 25 rankings after a six-game winning streak to finish 2019 with an 8-5 record, but people don’t know what to expect from them this year since those were all against unranked teams. Here’s a bit of what Marcello said.
"Jarrett Guarantano returns at quarterback for Tennessee to end his roller-coaster career that can be best described as uneven. Tennessee might just have the SEC’s best offensive line, and if the Vols can dominate Oklahoma in the trenches, the Vols will have a shot at pulling the first major upset of the college football season."
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It is true that Oklahoma would be a huge win for this program and signify it taking a major step forward. However, this is not at the top of the list of potential upsets for Pruitt’s team this year. In fact, there’s more hope behind UT upsetting the Florida Gators at home.
One thing going for Rocky Top is the fact that Oklahoma, for the first time in Lincoln Riley’s tenure, is starting an inexperience quarterback. Redshirt freshman Spencer Rattler is likely to get the nod, and without a full offseason, the Vols could have the advantage there.
That inexperience could break their streak of three straight College Football Playoff appearances behind two Heisman winners, Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray, and nearly a third one in Jalen Hurts. Simply put, this game will be a major test for Oklahoma as well.
Of course, given their 0-2 start last year, Tennessee football can’t look ahead of its opener against the Charlotte 49ers. Oklahoma will open things up against the Missouri State Bears. Depending on where these teams are in the rankings, it could make the Week Two matchup highly intriguing.