Tennessee football: Prediction for every game on Vols’ 2022 schedule plus bowl projections
10. 2245. Game 3. Knoxville, Tenn.. Neyland Stadium. 55. 839. Saturday, Sept. 17
3-0
UT will be riding high after such a huge win at Pitt. It’s a game that resets the expectations for the season. As a result, they return home to face their easiest opponent of the year, the Akron Zips, while suffering a bit of a hangover. That hangover will have no impact on Tennessee football’s ability to dominate this game, though.
Akron is entering a new era under former Mississippi State Bulldogs head coach Joe Moorhead, and their future may be bright. This year, however, they are awful. The Vols can sleepwalk their way to victory, and with this game sandwiched between two huge ones, that’s exactly what they’ll do. They will dominate.
This will actually be similar to one of those games against FCS schools they play in that Josh Heupel will pull the starters at halftime with the Vols holding onto a 42-0 lead. That will result in a sluggish second half, as they try to get out of the game with a win and avoid any injuries before the start of SEC play.
Games like these are why Nick Saban makes the case for playing all Power Five schools. Akron isn’t just a Group of Five school. It’s a bad Group of Five team this year, and the Vols will expose that by dominating without giving an ounce of effort.