The Southeastern Conference will pit strength against strength Saturday night when No. 14 Tennessee and No. 18 Oklahoma collide.
Neyland Stadium will be the backdrop as the Volunteers, who lead the SEC in total offense, passing offense and scoring offense, will seek to scorch the Sooners, who lead the league in total defense, passing defense and scoring defense. Tennessee is averaging 45.6 points per game and is coming off last Saturday’s 56-34 thumping of Kentucky in Lexington, but the Sooners yield just 12.5 points a contest.
“Defensively, they are as good as you’re going to see in college football,” Vols coach Josh Heupel said during his appearance on Wednesday’s SEC teleconference. “Their front is strong and violent and physical, and they’re relentless in trying to create negative plays and getting after the quarterback. They’ve done a really good job on the back end, too, so it’s a huge test for us.
“It’s also a great opportunity, and it should be a great environment.”
Tennessee announced Monday that the Vols will be in “dark mode,” wearing black from head to toe in this showdown that will be televised by ABC shortly after 7:30.
The magnitude of this contest from a College Football Playoff standpoint is significant, as each team enters with a 6-2 overall record. The Vols are 3-2 in conference play and the Sooners 2-2, and no SEC three-loss team earned an invitation to last season’s inaugural 12-team extravaganza that now decides the sport’s national champion.
“They’ve got an incredibly explosive offense,” Oklahoma fourth-year coach Brent Venables said Wednesday. “Coach Heup has done a great job with new people and plugging them in, and it’s one of the best offenses they’ve had in their program’s history up to this point in time.
“Defensively, they lead the SEC in turnovers, and they lead the country in defensive touchdowns. They are a playoff-worthy team with a great, great roster.”
Heupel and Venables were Oklahoma assistant coaches together during the 2006-11 seasons, with Venables looking for some revenge after Tennessee won 25-15 last year in Norman.
The flip side to the strength versus strength aspect of Saturday’s game is an Oklahoma offense that ranks 10th in the SEC tangling with a Tennessee defense that ranks 15th. The Sooners were held to 258 total yards and 1.6 yards per carry during their 23-6 loss to Texas on Oct. 11, and they had just 14 first downs and 24:24 of possession time in last weekend’s 34-26 loss to Ole Miss.
Tackling has been the biggest issue for the Vols, whose 98 missed tackles are a league high, according to Pro Football Focus.
“We are an elite program,” Tennessee defensive line coach Rodney Garner said Tuesday during a news conference. “We expect to play at an elite level, and we’re not meeting that standard. We’re not coaching at that level. We’re not doing anything at that level, so the room for improvement is there.
“I think everybody is prideful. Everybody wants to be really good, so it’s a challenge that we have to meet head on.”
Tennessee is entering November with a defense allowing 401.5 yards per game, with last year’s unit having finished sixth nationally with a 293.2-yard clip.
“Since we’ve come here, I think we’ve sort of changed our identity,” Garner said. “I think we’ve been able to play some good defense, so nobody wants to regress and nobody’s looking for excuses. We have a job. We have to do our job at a high level.
“It’s the coaches, too. We have to coach it better, and we have to do it better.”
Pruitt to Jax State
Former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt has been cleared by the NCAA to work as a remote analyst at Jacksonville State for the rest of this season.
Pruitt, who preceded Heupel as coach of the Vols from 2018-20, received a six-year show-cause penalty in 2023 that still runs through 2029, but CBS reported that the school and the NCAA met on Oct. 23. According to CBS, the modified terms that were agreed upon “do not apply to any other institution that should wish to employ Mr. Pruitt during the remainder of the show-cause period.”
The NCAA is also requiring that Jacksonville State submit an annual report detailing what responsibilities Pruitt will have on game days beginning with next season.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.