Tennessee is coming off a disastrous loss in Week 8, and it will have had 2 weeks to agonize over it and try to get over it as SEC rival Kentucky comes to Knoxville for a Week 10 showdown.
The 16th-ranked Volunteers sit at 6-2 overall and 3-2 in the SEC after collapsing at South Carolina on Oct. 24, and their College Football Playoff hopes will be hanging in the balance as they try to rebound against a surging Kentucky team.
Big Blue Nation is in an uproar going into November as the 8th-ranked Wildcats have won 6 in a row and sit at 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the SEC. Kentucky football is in uncharted territory going into Week 10, with its ranking and record and the possibilities that exist in Will Stein‘s first season in Lexington.
With all that drama as a backdrop at a packed Neyland Stadium and with both teams coming off bye weeks, the Circa Sports opening line revealed on Sunday believes in the Volunteers a lot more than the Wildcats. That opening line for Saturday’s 6:15 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN has made Tennessee nearly a touchdown favorite on its home field. The Vols are favored by 6.5 points to be exact, with an early over-under total that sits at 51.5 points.
Here is that opening line along with all of the early Week 10 opening lines that were revealed on Sunday:
This is an old SEC rivalry that dates back to 1893, when Kentucky routed Tennessee, 56-0.
Despite that opening salvo by the Cats, Tennessee owns this rivalry and it owns it big-time, with an all-time record of 85-26-9 in the series.
The Volunteers have also won the past 5 meetings with the Wildcats, so Saturday night’s matchup will be a huge opportunity for Kentucky to not only put an end to that streak but also to prove Sunday’s early line wrong.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
