Tennessee football: Ranking every 2020 game by difficulty

6. Oct. 17 – Kentucky Wildcats

Mark Stoops is the other former defensive coordinator for Jimbo Fisher we were referring to. They worked together with the Florida State Seminoles, and Jeremy Pruitt directly succeeded him once he took the head coaching job for the Kentucky Wildcats. Anyway, Kentucky is Tennessee football’s most difficult matchup that is clearly a toss-up at this point.

Again, road and home games don’t matter as much, so UK coming to Knoxville isn’t a huge deal. What is a huge deal is the fact that the Vols play them right in between playing the Georgia Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide. As a result, this could be a trap game for Pruitt’s team, and they need to do everything they can to avoid falling into that trap.

Kentucky was a defining win for the Vols last year, as it got them back to .500 after their horrendous start. This year, though, Stoops’ Wildcats have a ton of hype behind them despite losing Lynn Bowden Jr. to the pros. He has proven he can offset talent on a yearly basis, and with quarterback Terry Wilson back and healthy, they should be better.

Last year, UK went 8-5 just like the Vols, and they would have gone 9-4 had they actually beaten UT. To be fair, regardless of where the teams stand, Rocky Top always seems to beat Kentucky, and Pruitt is 2-0 against Stoops. But it’ll be tough for him to get to 3-0, and he needs to do that for the Vols to have any real shot at a good season.