Tennessee had the luxury of sleeping off the big win against Alabama with a game against UT-Martin last week, but now it’s back to the grind. The Volunteers will host the Kentucky Wildcats this Saturday night, bringing yet another top 25 matchup to the table for Tennessee. They currently hold a 4-0 mark in those ranked games to this point.
Kentucky got a much-needed bye week, allowing quarterback Will Levis to get healthy. The Wildcats dropped a game to South Carolina without him, and lost in the closing seconds to Ole Miss with him. Overall, they sit at 5-2.
Frankly, they’ve had a bit of an odd season to this point. Kentucky struggled through their non-conference cupcake slate, but found a win in The Swamp against Florida and beat a ranked Mississippi State team in Lexington.
Mark Stoops has built a program based on toughness, defense and running the football. The question for this week is, can they keep up with the best offense in the country? The oddsmakers say no.
Per DraftKings Sportsbook, Tennessee has opened as a 13 point favorite. The total opens at 63 points.
Kentucky’s 83rd ranked offense has their work cut out for them on Saturday, with Tennessee on the other side of the field. The Wildcats do have the 14th ranked defense, but we saw what the Volunteers did to Alabama just nine days ago. Kentucky has scored 26, 24, 22 and 27 points in SEC play — that number will likely have to dramatically improve if they want to pull the upset here.
No. 3 Tennessee will kickoff against No. 19 Kentucky on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET. ESPN will have the coverage.
Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See DraftKings.com/sportsbook for details.