Tennessee football: Kentucky most important game so far

The Tennessee football Volunteers’ matchup with the Wildcats will be crucial.

When Tennessee football faces the Kentucky Wildcats in Knoxville this Saturday, it’ll be an underwhelming stage given the importance of the matchup. The game won’t be televised on CBS or ESPN, and it won’t be played under the lights with 100,000 screaming fans.

However, set for a noon kickoff in front of what will likely be around 25,000 fans, UT’s Week 4 matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats could make or break its season. Here’s a look at why this week is so important for the Vols.

This is a game the Vols are supposed to win.

When we look at what Big Orange Country has to gain from a win this Saturday, it’s easy to see this isn’t the biggest game of the season. Taking into consideration what will be lost from a defeat against the Wildcats, though, makes the contest the most important game of the year so far.

Heading into this 10-game SEC-only schedule, a reasonably hopeful record to shoot for was 7-3. The best-case-scenario was that Jeremy Pruitt could find a way to beat one of the teams he is yet to conquer in the Georgia Bulldogs, Alabama Crimson Tide or Florida Gators and scrape out an 8-2 regular-season total.

That aspiration is absolutely still alive, but even 7-3 will be highly unlikely with a loss to Kentucky. Tennessee football has to run the table in games that were considered toss-ups or likely wins at the beginning of the season to get there. UK falls into that category.

Jeremy Pruitt is yet to lose to the Wildcats.

Just as Pruitt was yet to beat Georgia, Florida, or Alabama heading into the season, he’s yet to lose to Kentucky. In this case, if you’re losing to those three teams, you can’t afford to lose games to UK. You really can’t have it both ways.

In his first two years on Rocky Top, Pruitt has defeated a ranked No. 12 Wildcat team at home in a 24-7 win in 2018 and contained Lynn Bowden on the road in a 17-13 victory last year. For a coach that just signed a contract extension through 2025, he has to continue to dominate conference games against teams with less talent.

A loss to Big Blue Nation on Saturday likely means Vols will enter their bye week on a three-game skid with the Alabama Crimson Tide up next week. After opening the season with two impressive wins, how painful would it be for Rocky Top to see a losing 2-3 record to start the second half of the schedule?

Losing this game would likely make this season a failure.

Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? All of the points we’ve just brought up ultimately boil down to this one tough-to-swallow potential reality.

For a program that has arguably made a step forward every year under Pruitt, a loss to Kentucky here and assuming the Vols would then finish 6-4 at best would be a step sideways, maybe even a step backward. Definitely not a step forward.

You’d also have to take into consideration the recruiting implications a loss at home to Kentucky would have. It’s tough to sell high schoolers on the idea that they’ll be part of a rebuilding national title contender with losses like that.

After the bye, Tennessee football’s schedule doesn’t get any easier either. They’ll face a gritty Arkansas Razorbacks team as well as the Texas A&M Aggies and the Auburn Tigers over a three-week stretch.

As 4.5-point favorites heading into this weekend, the odds seem to be in the Vols’ favor. This year in the SEC a win is a win, and for a Tennessee football team playing in Neyland Stadium, a win is all they can afford on Saturday.