On Saturday night in college football, the national spotlight will shine on Knoxville, Tenn., and the top-25 matchup of OU vs. Tennessee.
Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium will be rocking for the Volunteer’s 2015 home opener, with a sellout crowd of close to 105,000 expected for the nationally televised game (ESPN).
The Sooners have played plenty of game before huge partisan crowds, including at Notre Dame (2013), at Florida State (2011) and every year at the Cotton Bowl against Red River rival Texas, but Oklahoma has never played before a crowd as large as the one it will have to contend with at Tennessee on Saturday night.
Sep 5, 2015; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners wide receiver Durron Neal (5) catches a pass while being defended by Akron Zips cornerback Kris Givens (21) during the first quarter at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Saturday’s game is a rematch of the game played last season at Oklahoma, where the Sooners dominated the Tennessee offensive line and the defense limited the Volunteer offense to just a touchdown and a field goal in a 34-10 OU victory.
The Volunteers, who cruised to a 59-30 victory over Bowling Green last Saturday, amassing 399 rushing yards and 608 yards of total offense, are looking to equal the score against the Sooners in this season’s rematch.
There will be differences on both sides when the No. 17 Sooners and the No. 23 Vols (according to the this week’s AP poll) line up against each other for this season’s contest. Oklahoma will be sporting a new-look offense under new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. The Sooners have gone to an Air Raid attack, similar to the quick-paced, quick-pass spread attack employed at Texas Tech. Sooner fans will recall the early seasons under head coach Bob Stoops, when offensive mastermind and pirate-aficionado Mike Leach introduced the same offense at Oklahoma.
The Volunteers have gotten much stronger on the offensive line, which was a major problem in the loss at Oklahoma a year ago, and, like Oklahoma, will have someone new at starting quarterback for this year’s game.
This will be only the fourth meeting ever between the Sooners and Volunteers and the first in Knoxville. Oklahoma has a 2-1 edge in the three previous games. Saturday will be only the second time in OU football history that the Sooners have played a game in the Volunteer State. Oklahoma defeated Vanderbilt 24-3 on the road in a nonconference game in 1976.
With Baker Mayfield as the starting quarterback, the Sooners’ new Air Raid offense threw for 439 passing yards (388 by Mayfield and 51 by backup Trevor Knight) in the season-opening win over Akron, more than in any game the year before.
Sep 5, 2015; Nashville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers running back John Kelly (4) during the second half against the Bowling Green Falcons at Nissan Stadium. Tennessee won 59 to 30. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Of slight concern, however, was the 100 total net rushing yards by an offense that led the Big 12 a year ago, averaging 261 yards per game on the ground, and over 100 per game by Samaje Perine alone. Perine finished the Akron game with 33 net yards on 11 carries. Whether that is more the result of the Akron defense keying on the run game and Perine in particular or inexperience on the offensive line should become more clear over the next several games.
The Oklahoma defense will have its hands full with the explosive Tennessee offense that operates behind quarterback Joshua Dobbs, who threw for two touchdowns and completed 68 percent of his passes for 205 yards in the win over Bowling Green. Dobbs is a more accurate passer and more mobile than Justin Worley, who quarterbacked the Vols in last year’s game in Norman.
Jalen Hurd, the power back in the Tennessee offense, rushed for 123 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener, while Alvin Kamara, the Vols’ speed back in this offense, contributed a team-high 144 yards and a couple of touchdowns. In the game at Oklahoma last season, the Volunteers totaled 112 yards on the ground against the Big 12’s best rushing defense.
The Sooners torched Tennessee for 308 passing yards last season, and OU’s wide receivers and passing game is even stronger this season. Advantage Oklahoma.
Under Bob Stoops, Oklahoma is 50-27 against teams ranked at the time in the AP Top-25. That ranks third nationally since 1999, when Stoops started his coaching reign at OU. The Sooners are 13-9 on the road against AP top-25 teams under Stoops.
Stoops is 5-4 at Oklahoma against current SEC teams not named Missouri or Texas A&M, including wins over Alabama and Tennessee in the Sooners last two SEC matchups.
3 Things to Watch for in This National Spotlight Game
- Can the Sooners overcome the sizeable obstacles created by 105,000 noisy, amped-up fans that, despite what you read from the Sooner coaches and players, will be a major distraction and communication nightmare when Oklahoma has the ball, particularly with a largely inexperienced offensive line that showed some struggles in front of a Sooner home crowd this past weekend?
- Tennessee ran the ball with great effectiveness in its 59-30 win last weekend over Bowling Green. This week, the Vols will go up against a much better defensive front in Oklahoma. The Sooners must slow down Tennessee when the Vols run the ball, but Tennessee also has a bevy of talented wide receivers and a mobile quarterback that, in combination, historically has given Oklahoma defenses fits.
- The Achilles heel in the Tennessee defense this season appears to be its play in the secondary. A key matchup in Saturday’s game will be how well Tennessee will be able to defend the OU Air Raid offense. Last weekend, the Volunteers gave up 557 yards of offense to Bowling Green and 433 of that total came through the air. Oklahoma’s 439 passing yards against Akron, like Bowling Green a team from the Mid-American Conference, was the second most in Week 1 among FBS teams.
My pick: Oklahoma 31, Tennessee 27 – The Sooner D will create enough disruption to a very good Tennessee offense and keep the Vols off of the scoreboard enough to allow a more balanced Oklahoma offensive effort than in Week 1. Look for RB Joe Mixon, WR Sterling Shepard and DB Zack Sanchez to have big games. QB Baker Mayfield will utilize his multiple offensive weapons and take advantage of what the Volunteer defense will give the Sooners, and OU will escape Knoxville with an important road win and a huge momentum boost for the rest of the season.