Tennessee is in the ultimate “bounce back” spot next Saturday in Week 5 in the same stadium where it just suffered a painful defeat.
The Volunteers couldn’t get over the hump in Week 4 against top-ranked Texas, as they fell, 20-17, suffering their first loss of the 2026 season. It was a stinging defeat but also a defeat that told Tennessee that it could hang with the SEC‘s best and the nation’s best, so there was that piece of positivity that came out of the showdown between orange-clad teams.
Whatever feeling, good, bad or a mixed bag, that Tennessee takes out of that close loss to the No. 1 team in the country, it’s going to have to pick itself up quickly a week later at Neyland Stadium as it entertains another SEC rival in Auburn.
The Tigers might not be ranked, but they showed a little bounce-back ability themselves in Week 4, outlasting Vanderbilt at home just 1 week after losing to Florida in the same stadium.
So, Tennessee can take a lesson from its Week 5 foe as it comes into the matchup as a 7.5-point favorite, according to the Kalshi market. The total points for the game sits at 54.5 right now, as Auburn (3-1, 1-1 SEC) and Tennessee (3-1, 0-1) get ready to clash in a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff on ESPN.
It’ll be a homecoming of sorts for Tigers head coach Alex Golesh, who was Tennessee’s offensive coordinator under Josh Heupel in 2021 and 2022 before taking the head coaching job at South Florida in 2023.
While Tennessee, which fell 3 spots to No. 17 in Sunday’s new AP Poll, aims for a bounce-back win and Auburn tries to keep its momentum going, here is what the Kalshi market is currently saying about, flat out, who has the better chance to win next Saturday at Neyland Stadium:
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.
