This game actually reminds me of the Oklahoma vs. Houston game a week ago. We have a team in Tennessee thatâs similar to Oklahoma getting a ton of pre-season picks to be a national title contender, but Iâm not buying into their head coach Butch Jones who has proven over and over he canât come up in a big spot. Meanwhile you have Virginia Tech flying under the radar with a very good head coach in Justin Fuente. Fuente came over from Memphis last year, and heâs a guy that coaches to his strengths. He took his Memphis club and they handled Ole Miss at home last year with a relatively easy win. Ole Miss was one crazy play away from playing in the SEC Championship a year ago. I just really like the decisions Fuente has made and he was able to keep Bud Foster here as a defensive coordinator which was huge.
Foster, very aware of Tennessee and admits to studying them over the summer and mentioned in the media that he thought they were very vanilla a week ago. Typically I donât like to fade a team Tennessee that did not look their best a week ago, but I was all over Appalachian State in my pre-season podcasts. Did not back them a week ago, but I was not totally shocked that Tennesseeâs offense had issues against that defense. I think we could see more of that this week, and Virginia Tech is a much better offense.
Virginia Tech returns 8 starters, and they bring in a JUCO transfer in Jerod Evans who posted 38 TDâs and 3 INTâs last year. Evans is a mobile QB that will benefit from having talent around him, but I donât see Fuente, an offensive minded guy asking him to do too much.
There are a ton of intangibles to break down in this game. For on this game is at Birstol Speedway which is in Tennessee, but both campuses are nearly identical distances from the speedway which will feature a crowd of nearly 150,000 breaking the old record for a college football game in 2013. I also think all the pressure is on Tennessee and we have seen teams coached by Butch Jones crumble under that pressure. I mean they were 4 plays away from being undefeated a year ago. They trailed against a Sun Belt team late last week. Also worth noting is teams that were big favorites the week before that go into OT are just 18-40 ATS the following week. I had this game around 7 or 7.5, but itâs all the way up to 11 despite Tennessee and I think we get value here. Virginia Tech dominated Liberty a week ago allowing just 160 yards, and Liberty beat 2 top 10 FCS teams a year ago. Tennessee also 1-4 ATS in their last 5 vs. the ACC. Enjoy the game it should be a close one.
