All eyes will be on Tennessee this Saturday for what is Josh Heupel’s biggest game at Tennessee yet.
The Vols are set to host the nation’s top team, No. 1 Georgia, at Neyland Stadium in front of a national audience. Tennessee-Georgia will be the SEC Game of the Week on CBS — a 3:30 p.m. EST primetime game — for the first time in the Heupel era.
The media attention doesn’t even start there. Before the game, SEC Nation will be on location in Knoxville Friday evening and Saturday morning to preview the matchup.
After the offensive performance the Vols (5-4, 3-3 SEC) put on last Saturday, it’s understandable why CBS would want to put the spotlight on one of the most potent offenses in football.
Pace was the name of the game in the Vols’ 45-42 upset win over No. 18 Kentucky in Lexington. Despite being tripled by the Wildcats in time of possession (13:52 to 46:08), the Vols managed to win in one of the strangest fashions.
Tennessee ran only 47 plays — averaging 2.92 plays a minute — but still scored 45 points, nearly a point a play. Those skewed numbers are the result of several big-yardage plays the Vols had early on. Their very first play from scrimmage was a 75-yard touchdown pass and their fourth play — a 72-yard touchdown pass.
Plays like those throw the final numbers off and turn the game into an abnormality, but the overall result is exactly what Heupel wants to create with that tempo.
“The other night, it was just a really unique way in which the game unfolded,” Heupel said. “There was 2 touchdowns in 4 plays. We had a huge play down the sideline to Jalin (Hyatt) on play 6, and then we fumbled the ball. Just the way the game unfolded for us offensively was really unique with all the explosive plays that quickly.”
Tennessee’s success in the up-tempo offensive could be a silver lining against an otherwise dark matchup with Georgia.
The Bulldogs (9-0, 7-0 SEC) bring not only the top defense of the year into Knoxville, but arguably one of the greatest defenses in the history of college football. Defensive lineman and Heisman candidate Jordan Davis leads a unit that has allowed just 59 points through nine games, averaging an insane mark of 6.56 points allowed per game.
Georgia has not played a bunch of nobodies all season. The Bulldogs shut out an Arkansas team ranked in the top-10 back in October, and followed that up by holding Auburn to a 10-spot the next week. The most points Georgia has allowed in a single game is 13, which South Carolina and Kentucky both managed to do.
It would be a major win in its own right if Tennessee can get even 2 touchdowns against Georgia.
“It starts with their personnel. They’re big, long, physical, athletic,” Heupel said. “They play with speed. When you think you got space, they’re closing down pretty quick. They’re able to rotate a lot of guys too. The depth of their football team is a big part of their success, being able to play guys almost interchangeably.”
Davis’ numbers — 21 tackles, 2.0 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss — don’t initially jump off the page, but the attention he commands opens the door for others to have success. Linebacker Channing Tindall is Georgia’s leading tackler, followed closely by Lewis Cine. Adam Anderson, Nakobe Dean, Travon Walker and Jalen Carter all have 3.0 or more sacks, and the group has 10 interceptions. It’s why Georgia is the country’s top scoring defense by a wide margin.
Those numbers are daunting, but if Tennessee has any chance to play a competitive half of football, thanks to the irony of college football, it’s by getting to that defense.
The pure pace at which Tennessee plays will be a whole new challenge for Georgia’s defense. The group just hasn’t seen an offense move with the speed and efficiency Heupel and Hendon Hooker have worked at over the last several games. Hooker’s career day last Saturday — 316 yards, 4 touchdowns, 273.7 passer rating — is a good indicator of that.
That’s not to say Tennessee has a decent chance at a miracle win. Georgia opened as a 3-touchdown favorite over Tennessee for a reason. That defense is just a special group, and it more than makes up for a slightly above-average Bulldog offense.
If any team has a shot to at least put Georgia’s defense on its heels for the first time this season, it would be Heupel’s Vols.
“This is probably the first time Georgia has seen an offense do it as fast as we do,” wide receiver JaVonta Payton said. “This is about us going out there and doing what we do best. We got to make sure we have all the small details. Coach (Kodi) Burns and coach Heupel are on us all the time about making sure we’re locked in, we’re doing our job. We most definitely think we can go out there and turn some eyes.”
