Kentucky @ Tennessee: Can the Vols Dominate?

Tennessee Football will be back in action tomorrow after an open date. The Vols will play host to their border rival the Kentucky Wildcats for a night game featuring the dark mode jerseys. It’s always fun as a Tennessee fan when the Vols beat the Wildcats in any sport. However, this might be the worst Kentucky team to play in Neyland since 2014.

This means Tennessee’s focus will need to be extra sharp going into this one. Earlier this year, coming out of Tennessee’s first bye week, they went to Arkansas and laid an egg. This time the Vols will have the benefit of being the home team but what I’m looking for this week is domination. Tennessee is a 17.5-point favorite according to DraftKings and at this point in the season style points matter. I was willing to give the Vols a pass for having a knockdown drag out with Florida because that game is always weird but if the same type of game unfolds against Kentucky I will be concerned about their playoff chances. A nice Tennessee cover and then some would give the team a lot of confidence as they begin the last stretch of the season and there’s no reason it shouldn’t happen.

Kentucky can’t stop the run and Kentucky can’t score. If Tennessee can get off to a quick start and score some points in the first half for the first time since September, this game could get ugly fast. Kentucky isn’t built to come back from a deficit, and they are in the middle of a QB controversy to boot. The bottom line is there’s no reason for Tennessee to not route this Kentucky team. The only way it doesn’t happen is if the team makes the same mistakes they did coming out of their first bye week and I don’t think they will.