Tennessee vs. Ohio State: Final thoughts and Prediction
4 years ago Tennessee Football fans were either in a blind rage or completely apathetic about the program. The rumblings about Jeremy Pruitt’s cheating scandal came out right after the Vols finished a horrendous 3-7 season, and even the most optimistic fans expected it to take years of rebuilding to be respectable again. Luckily, the right decisions were made across the board and now we are just a few hours away from watching our beloved Volunteers come out of the tunnel to play their most important game in at least 17 years.
The goal for the season was to make the inaugural 12-team college football playoff and Tennessee went out and achieved that goal. Columbus, Ohio will be the first stop on hopefully a 4-leg journey for the Vols en route to a national championship. The Ohio State Buckeyes just so happen to be one of the best programs in college football history, but that won’t mean anything once the ball is kicked off tonight. Tennessee has all the chance in the world to beat this team handily if they play mistake-free football and execute on a high level. However, no team ever plays perfect, and there will be moments where Tennessee has to respond to adversity throughout the game. Luckily for Tennessee, responding to adversity during a game has been the theme of their season. Down 10-0 to Florida, Down 7-0 to Alabama into the third quarter, down 10-7 to a horrible Kentucky team at halftime, down 14-0 to Vanderbilt 5 minutes into the game. Teams with less maturity and confidence would have lost at least one of those games, but not this team, not the 2024 Tennessee Volunteers.
This game has nothing to do with a stupid narrative about the weather or Josh Heupel’s ability to beat a team like Ohio State away from Neyland Stadium. This game will come down to who responds to adversity the best. Tennessee has shown that ability all season while Ohio State will be looking to show how they can respond after sitting on the Michigan loss for 3 weeks. Will the Buckeyes be pressing and make stupid mistakes? Will the Vols let the road environment bog them down like it has in the past? Either way, it will come down to who has the better response.
At the end of the day, I think the Vols are more battle-tested for a game like this. I think Josh Heupel after 12 games and now 3 weeks of practice will tell Nico to let it fly. I think the Tennessee defensive line will get after a banged-up Ohio State offensive line. I think Dylan Sampson will get his like always. Finally, I think Tennessee will be playing with far less pressure and that’s the biggest key. Very few people predicted Tennessee to make the playoffs. Meanwhile, Ohio State was regarded as one of the most talented teams in the country and predicted to make the playoffs by most of the national media. Now they are coming off a 4th straight loss to their most hated rival and the next loss might be Ryan Day’s death sentence. Give me the Vols to stay undefeated against the Buckeyes all time, and hell let’s even say they win by the same score that they did in 1996.
Prediction
Tennessee - 20
Ohio State - 14