Tennessee and Ohio State will meet in the first round of the College Football Playoff in less than ten days. The Vols will travel to Columbus in their CFP debut in hopes of upsetting the Buckeyes and advancing to the Rose Bowl, where they will play Oregon.
While the road to the National Championship is the toughest, Tennessee has an outside shot of winning its first title since 1998.
As we near gameday, the possibility of Tennessee beating Ohio State, despite being underdogs, is becoming more popular. One advantage the Vols have over OSU is in the trenches. Tennessee's front seven is a lot better than the Buckeyes' offensive line and could be the reason Tennessee wins the game.
Fox Sports personalities Colin Cowherd and Joel Klatt discussed the mismatch up front and how, based on how they have performed against similar opponents up front this season, it could be a problem for Ohio State.
“Ohio State’s at home as a favorite," Cowherd said earlier this week. "They’re wobbling. Their O-Line is a bit messy, and Tennessee’s defensive front is stout… It’s going to be 38 (degrees), cold, and wet. That’s a bad matchup for the Buckeyes, Joel. You’ve seen a lot of Ohio State. I don’t like that game for Ohio State, do you?”
Klatt, who has called multiple Ohio State games for Fox this season, agreed with Cowherd's sentiment. Klatt joined Cowherd in the belief that Tennessee could be a bad matchup for the Buckeyes based on how they've performed against teams like Nebraska and Michigan.
“If you look at the games in which struggled, mainly on the offensive side, you would point to the Nebraska game, and you would point to the Michigan game,” Klatt responded. “And the thing that Nebraska and Michigan had is they were very stout in the interior of their defensive line.
"That’s the whole deal. And a team that was committed to running the football on the opposite side. Those two teams had terrible offenses, and Ohio State survived against Nebraska with a fourth down goal line stand with their defense and didn’t survive against Michigan. So this is not a great matchup for Ohio State, not in the least.”
Nebraska and Michigan shut down Ohio State's run game, so Nebraska played the Buckeyes close, and Michigan found a way to beat them.
If Tennessee can shut down Ohio State's rushing attack, they can keep the ball in Nico's hands, give the offense plenty of opportunities to build momentum and find a way to beat the Buckeyes in front of their home crowd.