Tennessee football: Game-by-game predictions for 2020 season
34. 814. Prediction. 17. 839
Saturday, Oct. 10; Sanford Stadium; Athens, Ga.
With a 2-0 record, Tennessee football will come in hoping to prove this is a statement game and that they can compete in the SEC East. Well, apologies to all Vol fans, but that’s not what is going to show up in this game. Once again, the Georgia Bulldogs will get the best of the Vols, and Kirby Smart will be rolling to what he hopes is a national championship season.
UT did put up two early touchdowns last year against the Dawgs with Brian Maurer at quarterback. However, UGA returns 80 percent of its talent on defense this year, and the Dawgs will have the most complete secondary in the nation. With Jarrett Guarantano throwing to two new starters from last year, the Vols will get nothing in the passing game.
As a result, Jim Chaney will turn to the ground and rely on Ty Chandler and Eric Gray to keep it interesting. They’ll do that early in the first half, as Georgia won’t get much through the air against UT’s secondary either. This will be a ground and pound style SEC game. However, in that ground and pound style, Georgia is just better.
In the second half, the Dawgs will begin to exert their will, and they’ll control the clock so Jeremy Pruitt’s team can’t keep up. A 17-10 halftime lead by them will turn into a 34-17 win, as they’ll just keep it on the ground and never punt in the second half.