Georgia and Tennessee will collide Saturday in a leading candidate for college football’s Game of the Year.
Both SEC juggernauts enter the highly anticipated matchup at 8-0. While the Bulldogs top the AP Top 25, the Volunteers placed No. 1 in the inaugural College Football Playoff rankings.
Like the rest of the college world, Paul Finebaum is spending the week discussing this monumental clash.
“It’s going to be a spectacle,” Finebaum said Monday on McElroy and Cubelic (h/t 247Sports). “It will be the absolute epicenter of college football.”
The ESPN analyst can’t wait to see what happens when the nation’s No. 3-ranked scoring offense faces a formidable foe allowing the second-fewest points in the FBS.
“I’m really interested in what the Georgia defense can do against Hendon Hooker,” Finebaum said on ESPN’s Get Up. “We saw what happened against Alabama. He shredded them. He just absolutely trashed an elite defense for five touchdowns; he blew them up all day long.”
Hooker has emerged as a Heisman frontrunner with 2,238 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, and one interception. He led the Vols to a 52-49 victory over Alabama with 385 passing and 56 rushing yards.
Yet the Bulldogs haven’t yielded more than 22 points in a game this season. Finebaum also pointed to the Crimson Tide’s self-inflicted wounds in their loss at Neyland Stadium.
“Ultimately, that’s really where this game will be won and lost,” Finebaum said, via 247Sports. “Georgia’s offense is not as explosive as Alabama, but I think the defense is playing at a higher level. If you go back to the Alabama game, Alabama has 17 penalties on the road. I have a hard time imagining Georgia will play that poorly.”
All eyes will be on Athens when Georgia hosts Tennessee in a likely battle for the country’s No. 1 spot. The game starts at 3:30 p.m. ET on CBS.