After a loss to Alabama on Saturday night, Tennessee now prepares for an upcoming game against Kentucky on Saturday night in Lexington. It’ll be the Vols’ second-straight SEC road game and fourth straight conference game on the season.
The trends point to Tennessee winning this Saturday against the Wildcats. The Vols are currently a point favorite and have a projected 75.1% chance to win, according to ESPN Analytics. Kentucky hasn’t been great this season, winning just two of its first six games, but the Wildcats did push No. 21 Texas to the brink this past Saturday in Lexington.
Kentucky outscored Arch Manning’s Longhorns 13-6 in the second half and forced overtime with a game-tying field goal as regulation expired. The Wildcats would go on to lose 16-13 after a goal-line stand from the Longhorns and a subsequent walk-off field goal. It was Kentucky’s closest game – win or loss – of the season.
When asked during his Monday press conference if Kentucky’s film against Texas shows his team what they’re facing on Saturday, he said that his group is aware of things.
“Oh, they know they’re going to play a good team every week inside of this league,” Heupel said. “First of all, again, another road test. You can point to that (Texas) game and see the quality of the opponent that we’re playing.”
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Heupel also mentioned the Wildcats’ game against the Longhorns during his opening statement to begin the press conference on Monday.
“But whether you win or lose, you gotta flip it forward and watch the video, learn from it,” Heupel said. “And that’s what we gotta do this week, getting ready to go play in the border war game, rivalry game. You look at these games historically, they’ve been really tight. And so we’re playing a really good football team. You look at them Saturday against Texas, statistically won the game in about every way. Just not on the scoreboard. They take it to overtime. Another test inside of this league on the road against a good football team. And one that we’re looking forward to and hopefully we’ll see a lot of our fans make the trip up there to Lexington.”
The Wildcats are 2-4 so far this season with a 0-4 record in SEC play. Kentucky began the season with a 24-16 win over Toledo before falling to Ole Miss by a score of 30-23 in Lexington in Week 2. The ‘Cats bounced back with a 48-23 win over Eastern Michigan the following week, but have since dropped three straight games against SEC opponents with a 35-13 loss at South Carolina, a 35-14 loss at Georgia, and a 16-13 loss against Texas.
Tennessee is 4-0 against Kentucky in the Josh Heupel era. The Vols have yet to score fewer than four touchdowns against the Wildcats in any game, but the results in Lexington have been much closer than the games in Knoxville. Tennessee has won its two games under Heupel at Kroger Field by scores of 45-42 (2021) and 33-27 (2023).
The Vols and the ‘Cats will play under the lights at Kroger Field this weekend. Kentucky will host No. 17 Tennessee at 7:45 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
Here’s a look at the betting odds for the border battle:
