Tennessee returns to college football action this Saturday afternoon after a road win at Mississippi State and an open date over the last two weekends. Josh Heupel’s group is heading into its October slate with only one loss on the season and will have a chance to pick up some momentum off the bye week with a game against Arkansas in front of the home fans in Neyland Stadium.
The Vols jumped out as pretty sizable favorites early in the week and have maintained the position as a near-two-touchdown favorite against the Razorbacks in the back half of the week.
Tennessee is looking to avenge last season’s upset loss to Arkansas in Fayetteville, while the Razorbacks are looking to find new life under interim coach Bobby Petrino.
On3 Sports analyst and YouTube host Josh Pate already has the wheels spinning about what sort of fun he could have with a potential Arkansas victory over Tennessee this Saturday. Pate has Tennessee on upset alert this weekend, with the Razorbacks on a 7-out-of-10 on the upset meter.
While breaking down this weekend’s upcoming games on The Josh Pate Show on YouTube, the college football host explained why he feels the way he does about this game.
“I’m going to put a 7 (out of 10) on this game,” Pate said on Thursday’s show. “I think it’s going to be low-key way more competitive than America is ready to admit. I don’t think most of America even knows this game’s happening. I think there are four or five SEC games bigger than this one this week, and no one’s paying attention to this game – except us.”
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Pate charted out the path for how Arkansas could beat the Vols for a second straight season. He believes that Tennessee is going to get points on the board against a bad Razorback defense, but isn’t counting out the possible unpredictability of a team playing with new life under a new coach.
“To do it, something wild is going to have to happen,” Pate said. “But it may be possible, because Arkansas’s got a Top 20 passing offense, Tennessee pass defense in the 100s. So, what we’re thinking there is, I’m pretty sure Tennessee is going to get theirs. They’re off a bye, they’re at home, they’re going to get theirs. Arkansas could as well. How often do we love betting on interim coaches on this show? Because you never know what portion of a locker room or organization is galvanized because status quo has been broken. You just never know.”
Pate also mentioned how the quarterback dynamic could play into things on Saturday in Neyland Stadium.
“There’s wild variance in each quarterback,” Pate said. “Taylen Green could blow up, or he could implode. I’m not quite sure Joey Aguilar is going to implode, but he could have a C-game. We’ve seen his A-game before. If he plays his A-game, they’re going to win. They may cover.”
Check out the full segment on Thursday’s episode of The Josh Pate Show below:
