Tennessee football is coming off its first open date of the season as they prepare to face Arkansas at Neyland Stadium. The Vols are looking for revenge after falling to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville a season ago as multi-score favorites.
Josh Heupel coached teams have excelled coming off the open date to this point in his career. His teams at UCF and Tennessee 9-2 coming out of a bye week. In his first four years in Knoxville, Tennessee is 4-1 the week after a bye.
Ironically, Tennessee’s lone loss out of an open date during Heupel’s tenure came a season ago when the Vols lost to Arkansas 19-14. Tennessee bounced back after its second open date, knocking off an underwhelming Kentucky team 28-18 in Knoxville.
The Vols other wins off open dates under Heupel include a 20-13 victory over Texas A&M in 2023, a 40-13 win over No. 25 LSU in 2022 and a 45-42 win over No. 18 Kentucky during the 2021 season. Tennessee’s win in Lexington was the first win ranked of the Heupel era.
Heupel’s offenses have been particularly strong coming off a bye week. They have averaged 38 points per game in the 11 games with a 9-2 record. That number drops to 29.8 points per game in Heupel’s time at Tennessee with the Vols struggling offensively off of byes each of the last two seasons.
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Tennessee will need to deliver offensively this week against Arkansas to start off October in the win column. Arkansas is just 2-3 (0-1 SEC) this season but its offense has been strong, averaging 37.4 points per game. That mark that ranks 22nd nationally and fifth in the SEC so far this season.
The Razorbacks defense has been horrible to this point in the season, helping lead to the termination of Sam Pittman two weeks ago. But Tennessee isn’t looking past the Razorbacks towards Alabama. The Vols just have to look back to last year to find that motivation.
“We can point to last year and the way that we played coming off of the bye week,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said. “You look at last week, excited and happy about the way we competed. Went and played the next play, next series, went and finished the game. But there’s a lot of things that we can do a lot better.
Tennessee football opened as 13.5-point favorites over Arkansas according to the FanDuel Sportsbook. The over/under is set at 69.5. Kickoff from Neyland Stadium is at 4:15 p.m. ET and the SEC Network is broadcasting the game.
