The Fearless Prediction watched the first half of the Tennessee-Auburn game and, after having to see those offenses work in person, has spent the last few days receiving psychiatric care. But now it’s time to snap and clear and turn all our attention to the Tennessee-Arkansas game, this upcoming Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville.
Tennessee got the 24-14 victory over Auburn, and any win in the SEC should be reason for celebration. The Vols are now 4-1, with their only loss coming by a field goal to the top-ranked team in the country. But there are certainly cracks in the armor. True freshman QB Faizon Brandon has not fared well since league play began and does not look like a confident player. He’s reluctant to throw the football down field, as evidenced by his 3-of-8 for 0 yards passing performance against the Tigers. Brandon also had a brutal interception that gave AU a short field and eventually a TD.
That prompted Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel to pull Brandon in favor of redshirt freshman backup George MacIntyre, who completed 8-of-10 passes for 86 yards. MacIntyre certainly looked more assertive, and we might be looking at an Erik Ainge/Rick Clausen situation the rest of the way, with both QBs splitting starts. Tennessee fans would rather the results not match that 2005 campaign when the wheels fell off the bus and the Vols finished 5-6.
With the passing game fledgling, Heupel might be forced to lean even more on his running game, and that means large doses of DeSean Bishop. While Tennessee typically likes to spread the carries around, Bishop ended up with 34 rushes for a whopping 220 yards and 3 scores against Auburn. Bishop is the Vols’ best offensive player and has proven to be capable of carrying this team on his shoulders.
Not bad for a walk-on from Karns HS.
This 2026 Tennessee team is starting to resemble the 2024 Playoff version, a team that also had a young QB (Nico Iamaleava), a workhorse in the backfield (Dylan Sampson), and a really good defense. Against Auburn, the Vols forced 3 turnovers and collected 4 sacks. They forced 4 3-and-outs and had a huge stop on 4th-and-short in the final quarter that gave the offense a short field that it used to score the clinching TD.
Overall, the Vols lead the nation in sacks with 23, and are tied for 5th in the FBS in tackles for loss with 42. Penn State transfer Xavier Gilliam has been terrific, leading the Vols with 8.5 tackles for loss and is tied for the team lead in sacks with 4. No surprise that senior linebacker Arion Carter is tops on the team in tackles with 33.
New defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has been a major upgrade for the Vols.
Tennessee is a good football team. Arkansas looks nothing like a good football team. The Razorbacks are 2-3. Their 3 losses (Utah, Georgia, Texas A&M) have come by a combined score of 122-34.
Arkansas is ranked 116th in the FBS in total offense, with only 335 yards gained per game. QB KJ Jackson has struggled to move the football, with 6 TD passes and 4 INTs. Their leading RB, Braylen Russell, is only rushing for 27 yards per game. Senior WR Chris Marshall looks like Jackson’s only serious option in the passing game. He has 35 catches to lead the team, with Sutton Smith in second place with only 11 receptions through the first 5 games.
DB Khmori House, a transfer from Washington and North Carolina, leads the team in tackles for loss with 4.5 and is 2nd on the team in tackles with 33. LB Ben Boggle, a Southern Illinois and West Virginia transfer is tops with 35 tackles. But overall, this is a group that is struggling to stop anyone, allowing 28.4 points per game, ranked 108th in the FBS.
There is no honeymoon period for new head coach Ryan Silverfield. During his weekly press conference, Silverfield said that he understood the frustrations of Arkansas fans, and that his team was continuing to work hard to improve.
The last time this game was played in Fayetteville was in 2024. The Vols were the better team on the stat sheet, but a late Arkansas score, coupled with Iamaleava running out of bounds instead of a final heave to the end zone, gave the home team a 19-14 win. Razorbacks fans stormed the field. Rocky Top was played in mock tribute over the PA system. That was actually the last home win over a Power 4 conference opponent for Arkansas, as it has lost the last 9 of those games.
This is a weird series. Tennessee holds a 14-7 advantage over Arkansas, with the most memorable game seeing a Clint Stoerner fumble keep UT’s national title hopes alive in 1998. But some of the Vols’ losses have had devastating results. An Arkansas upset in 1992 helped keep the Vols out of the first SEC Championship Game, and the 1999 Arkansas upset might have kept the Vols out of the BCS title game (had the computers favored them over Virginia Tech).
But this time around the stakes don’t look to be as high, and normalcy will rule the day. Tennessee is expected to win, and it will win.
Fearless Prediction: Tennessee 27, Arkansas 10
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Mark Nagi has covered Tennessee athletics for over 20 years. He is the author of “Decade of Dysfunction,” an in-depth look at all that led to the crazy coaching search of 2017 at Tennessee. The book is available on Amazon.
