The Tennessee Volunteers host the Auburn Tigers on Saturday. Last week was a draining week for the Vols, as they hosted the Longhorns, College GameDay and the president. There is risk of an emotional letdown heading into this week, but Neyland Stadium tends to bring energy in a hurry. Auburn is in a tough spot in a hostile road environment after narrowly surviving Vanderbilt last week. The new regime at Auburn has thus far found that playing in the SEC is a huge step up, and I think they will struggle in one of the nation’s largest football venues. Give me the Vols to cover -7.
Auburn has been mostly unimpressive this season. They struggled in the opener against Baylor, and last week against Vandy, the offense could get almost nothing going. Their best game offensively was the shootout with Florida that they lost, but they also gave up nearly 250 yards on the ground in that game. If you do not stop the run against Tennessee, that’s a problem. For all the tempo that Josh Heupel brings, this is still a run-first system. Their freshman QB was running for his life last week against Texas, but the defense held up really well. Look for the Tennessee defense and running game to carry the load here.
Auburn vs Tennessee prediction: Tennessee Vols -7 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to -8.
