Just like last season, Tennessee has taken care of business against a pair of teams it was favored to beat on the front end of its schedule before playing a daunting non-conference road game.
In 2013, a 2-0 UT team traveled to No. 2 Oregon for its third game and lost 59-14.
This year, the Vols take on No. 4 Oklahoma prior to entering the SEC gauntlet.
After closing last season with a beat down of Alabama, the Sooners have outscored their opponents 100-23 through two games and are an early season candidate to make the College Football Playoff.
Here’s the good news for UT fans: The Vols are good enough this year to keep the game within 45 points.
For one, UT’s early season victories came against decent mid-major opponents Utah State and Arkansas State.
Austin Peay and Western Kentucky provided the Vols with zero resistance in the first two games of 2013.
For a young team that played at home in the first two weeks of the season, the adjustment to going on the road against an elite opponent won’t be as daunting because of the preparation and execution that was required to beat the Aggies and Red Wolves, respectively.
But it might be unreasonable to expect UT to stay within two possessions of Oklahoma.
The Sooners don’t care that the Tennessee running game showed improvement from week one to week two. OU’s loaded defensive front limited both Louisiana Tech and Tulsa to less than 100 yards net rushing in blowout victories.
And that’s with reserves playing most of those games after OU sprinted to a 21-0 first quarter lead in both games. Yeah, their offense isn’t bad, either.
Though the Sooners’ highly touted freshman running back Joe Mixon is suspended for the season, the OU offense that hung 45 points on Alabama in the Sugar Bowl is still plenty powerful with Trevor Knight back at quarterback.
But therein lies Tennessee’s best shot at keeping it close.
Knight’s receivers are mostly new, and assuming UT veteran safety Brian Randolph is fully recovered, the Vols’ secondary is experienced enough and fast enough to impact the game in a positive way if OU’s pass-catchers don’t rise to occasion of playing an SEC defense.
Through two games, it’s uncertain how good of an SEC defense UT has, but it’s certainly not as bad as the one Oregon pillaged last season.
And it should be enough to keep the Vols from getting completely embarrassed on Saturday.
Extra point: With all due respect to those who work hard to put it together every week, the Butch Jones television show that airs on Sundays during football season is not interesting like former coach Phillip Fulmer’s show was.
As one of my friends on Twitter put it, The Butch Jones Show is an hour of public relations, or basically just a substance-free commercial for UT football.
By comparison, Fulmer’s show featured an abbreviated version of the previous day’s game with the head coach essentially serving as a color commentator by explaining plays, praising players or pointing out flaws in his team’s performance. It was simple, refreshing and informative.
David Cobb is a senior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at [email protected].
