No. 19 OKLAHOMA (1-0) AT NO. 23 TENNESSEE (1-0)
*When: 6 p.m. *Where: Neyland Stadium * TV/Radio: ESPN/106.5 FM THE MATCHUP What’s the best way to alleviate the pressure on a shaky secondary? With a good pass rush, of course. Tennessee’s defensive line was unhappy with its play in the season-opening win against Bowling Green. The Vols managed three sacks against the Falcons, but their pass rush was hit and miss. Oklahoma has three new starters on its offensive line, including a redshirt freshman left tackle in Orlando Brown, the one-time Tennessee commitment, and a freshman right tackle in Dru Samia. The loss of starting defensive tackle Danny O’Brien through suspension is a blow to the Vols, and freshmen Shy Tuttle and Kahlil McKenzie will need to be ready to play more. Ends Corey Vereen and Dimarya Mixon played well last week, but the Vols will need big games from Derek Barnett and Curt Maggitt. Tennessee’e best shot at slowing Oklahoma is its defensive line controlling the line of scrimmage and pressuring Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield. ONE TO WATCH Oklahoma linebacker Eric Striker poured some fuel on the game-week fire and made a few headlines with some of his comments this week. The senior took a shot at the SEC by saying he wasn’t sure why “people blow gas up their (redacted) all the time” and also said he didn’t “think nothing special” about Tennessee running back Jalen Hurd, who’s a couple inches taller and about 20 pounds heavier than Striker. In this day and age of sanitized and cliched answers, Striker’s honesty stands out more. Surely the Vols have seen the comments. “If we need that to motivate us,” head coach Butch Jones said during a Wednesday appearance on the SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum Show, “then we need to check ourselves.” Tennessee better check to make sure it knows where Striker is. He’s a difference-maker with his pass-rushing speed off the edge – 17 tackles for loss and nine sacks in 2014 – and has a knack of making game-changing plays. IN THE END This early-season showdown is tough to call. Tennessee’s offense probably isn’t as good as it showed in the season opener, but its defense probably isn’t as bad as it looked. The Sooners are more of a mystery, particularly with new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley. What is Oklahoma’s identity on offense? Riley’s offenses threw it all over the place at East Carolina, but the Sooners, who ran for just 100 yards against Akron last week, have a trio of running backs as good as anybody’s in Samaje Perine, Joe Mixon and Alex Ross. The Sooners will try to clamp down on Tennessee’s rushing attack, but quarterback Josh Dobbs and a defense backed by a hostile home crowd and hungry to bounce back from last week will be the difference for the Vols.PREDICTION: TENNESSEE 37, OKLAHOMA 34
KNOXVILLE – Earlier this week, Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops scoffed at the notion his Sooners would be intimidated by playing at Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium on Saturday night.
It’s exactly the response you’d expect from a coach with a national championship, eight Big 12 Conference crowns, 16 bowl appearances and the most wins (169) of any coach in the history of one of college football’s blue-blood programs.
The Sooners are one of only 10 programs with 800 all-time wins, but 19th-ranked Oklahoma (1-0) has never played in front of a crowd as big it will against Tennessee tonight.
The setting will be more unfamiliar, though, for this year’s Volunteers (1-0), who are ranked 23rd.
“It’s a great opportunity to play on the national stage and go out and compete against the best,” Tennessee quarterback Josh Dobbs said. “You come to Tennessee for games like this.”
The problem is Tennessee hasn’t been winning games like this one.
Since Phillip Fulmer’s final season as coach in 2008, the Vols are 2-29 against ranked teams. If you include the 0-4 mark against ranked teams in the final season under Fulmer, who was 42-37-1 against ranked teams during his tenure, Tennessee astonishingly has just two wins in its past 35 games against ranked teams. Both wins were against South Carolina, in 2009 (under Lane Kiffin) and 2013 (Butch Jones’ first year as Tennessee’s coach).
Oklahoma is 50-37 against ranked teams under Stoops, and that mark includes nonconference road wins at Florida State in 2011 and Notre Dame in 2013. But the Sooners are trying to bounce back from a disappointing 8-5 season in 2014 and an offseason during which Stoops made seven changes to his coaching staff.
“A top-five football team and a top-five football program,” Jones said of the Sooners. “I have a lot of respect for Bob. I think he illustrates the difference between building a team and building a program. His administration and his fan base have stood with him through all of the trials and tribulations, and they’ve developed one of the best programs in all of college football.
“I think they’re one of the most underrated football teams in the country,” he added, “and you can tell they have a quiet confidence about themselves.”
Tennessee is starving to win a high-profile game and continue moving toward national relevance, and a victory tonight would be an important step in that regard, showing the offseason hype was deserved and demonstrating the program’s progress under Jones.
“It would really set the stage for us going into SEC play,” fifth-year senior left tackle Kyler Kerbyson said. “It would show how much we’ve grown as a team overall. It would really make everybody and all the Vol fans happy.
“This is what they’ve been waiting for for a long time. Me myself, this is what I’ve been waiting for. This being my fifth year, I’m so excited for this season. I feel like we’re on the up and up.”
Tennessee is just 7-15 against power conference opponents the past five seasons at Neyland Stadium, and a win tonight would aid the Vols’ effort to restore a sense of invincibility about their fortress.
“It’s going to be an electric environment,” freshman linebacker Darrin Kirkland said. “A lot of distractions. I’m really trying to focus on the game plan and focus on the task at hand. When I get on the field, it’s all business.”
The Vols are trying to keep tonight in perspective, though. There are 10 games remaining for both Tennessee and Oklahoma. Neither team’s hopes in their respective conference races will be blemished. The makeup of both teams suggest they’ll progress throughout the season.
But there is plenty of magnitude and importance to this matchup.
“It’s another game, another opportunity to showcase who we are as Tennessee football,” cornerback Cameron Sutton said.
Added defensive end Curt Maggitt: “Every week is a big week. Every opponent is a big opponent. Oklahoma coming in, it’s a great opportunity.”
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com