Tough to say. If there were ever a true case of a script being flipped, it's this game. Last year we returned most of a successful team with a young QB establishing himself and we were full of promise. They were breaking in a new Oline with a young but talented defense and a questionable QB on the road in a hostile environment. It's completely opposite this year. 180 degrees. Conservative money gets put on Tennessee in this game.

BUT....

The offense they will face this year is nowhere near what they faced last year. It's not even close. We have weapons all over the field and the reports wondering about our Oline are unfounded. We will be able to run the ball on any front seven. Do you recall the "thunder and lightning" backfield Auburn had years ago? We're pretty sure we have that....maybe even better. We will have a two back set featuring two probable 1st talents in the backfield at the same time. UT didn't see much of Perine last year as he was an RB2. They will see him AND Mixon at the same time. Mixon is better than Perine by a wide margin.

We've upgraded our WR squad substantially. Last year they just had to worry about Shepherd and they weren't very successful just managing him. We will have an 8 WR rotation this year. Six of those will be 6'3"+ and they can all fly. DeDe Westbrook was the #1 JUCO WR in the nation last year and it appears he has lived up to his billing. He has been uncoverable thus far. We will also feature a 6'-6" TE Jace Amaro clone that RS last year.

In short, we have a sh*tton of talent they didn't have to deal with last year by a larger margin than people think. The potential is there for us to have an offense that simply has too much to handle. I didn't even list the other weapons. BUT......a lot of that talent isn't proven and they will be going into Neyland in their 2nd game of the season, and that's something.

I'm not worried about their defensive front. Neutralizing defensive fronts is what we do best. We will be in a dogfight for sure. I think we get them gassed in the 2nd quarter and the same in the 4th quarter and we win in spite of their advantages. We have a lot of "potential" playmakers" and I think they catch Tennessee by surprise and deliver.

This post was edited on 8/18/15 at 12:53 am