The Vols are coming back to Neyland Stadium and I am returning after a discretionary bye week. I'll be honest with you. This year it seems like I've been writing the same preview over and over because the formula to win has been the same pretty much every SEC game. I didn't want to sound like a broken record so I needed a bit of a break from that.
I'll start with some general observations. Joe Milton looks like things are starting to click for him. In the first half of the Alabama game, he played great and the receivers were finally helping him. The second half got away from the whole team after the momentum was killed with horrible officiating and Alabama feeding off the crowd. Then he carried it over the next week when the Vols played Kentucky in Neyland North. Milton was a crisp 18-21 for 228 and a TD. By far his best game accuracy wise. Even more impressive was that it was on the road against a pretty good defense. Of course Tennessee's running game makes things a lot easier. This kind of reminds me of the way the lights just suddenly came on for Jonathan Crompton about midway through the Kiffin year in 2009. If Milton can continue this level of play the Vols can be a very dangerous team coming down the stretch. They already had a great pass rush and vastly improved defense and an elite rushing attack. If the passing game suddenly becomes a threat, this team will be very hard to beat.
So that brings us to Saturday. Connecticut comes to Knoxville with a 1-7 record and are coached by Jim Mora Jr. Believe it or not, Jim Mora Jr. was one of the first dominos that led Tennessee to the terrible decade of football that followed after Lane Kiffin. Follow along with me here. Jim Mora Jr. the coach of the Seattle Seahawks in 2009 and led them to a 5-11 record. He was fired after the season. USC coach Pete Carrol, looking to flee the looming NCAA sanctions, accepted the Seahawks job. A few days later, after five or six rejections from coaches who knew the hammer was about to drop on USC, Lane Kiffin accepted the job as coach of the Trojans. The Vols, now in panic mode just 3 weeks before signing day, hired Derek Dooley instead of letting David Cutcliffe hire his own staff or naming Kippy Brown the interim coach until after the 2010 season. These were just a few of the self inflicted wounds by the leadership at Tennessee that led to the terrible decade we just came out of.
Nothing about UConn really stands out when you look at them. They are just a bad team. Tennessee's offense is starting to click now. The Vols should put this game away early. Everyone is dying to see Nico get some extended playing time and it should happen on Saturday. UConn's offense hasn't scored many point at all against Power 5 teams so I would expect Tennessee's defense to dominate. They should rack up a lot of sacks. The Vols roll on homecoming and we see plenty of young talent before the day is over.
Tennessee(-35.5) 55
Connecticut 6
In other games...
Georgia 35
Missouri(+15.5) 24
Texas 28
Kansas State(+4.5) 27
Oklahoma(-5.5) 45
Oklahoma State 38
Texas A&M(+3) 24
Ole Miss 20
Alabama(-3) 41
LSU 30
Washington(-3) 48
USC 38
Clemson(+3) 27
Notre Dame 24
Last Week 4-2(2-4 ATS) Overall Record 32-16(21-26-1 ATS)
That's all I have for this week. As always, I appreciate everyone who took the time to read this. Cherish every second of football. There are only 3 games left after Saturday in the regular season. It's flying by like it always does.
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Enjoy your weekend and stay safe everyone. Go Vols and God Bless!