Tennessee and Texas are set to lock horns within the pressure-cooker that is Neyland Stadium on Saturday, with this battle of bright vs. burnt orange carrying plenty of high stakes.
The undertones of Arch Manning playing in the venue that his uncle starred in are obviously existent, but the victor will start out SEC play on a positive note and remain at the forefront of the College Football Playoff discussion heading into October.
ESPN’s Greg McElroy provided his predictions for this upcoming slate of games, and he believes that this will be a close battle of unbeatens.
But in the end, McElroy sees the Longhorns edging the Volunteers by a score of 24-20 and escaping Knoxville with a 4-0 record.
“Josh Heupel is 1-11 in his career when Tennessee scores fewer than 21 points, and 20 is exactly where I think UT will end up,” McElroy said. “It should be a terrific game.”
To McElroy’s point, this will be a clash of styles. Tennessee has yet to score less than 40 points in a game thus far, while Texas has given up merely 12 on average.
The Longhorns and Volunteers will kick off at noon ET, with the game being broadcast by ABC.
Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
