The only proven fact about Tennessee and Pittsburgh heading into Saturday’s showdown inside Neyland Stadium is that each has the ability to wax hapless teams from a year ago.
Bowling Green and UMass combined to go 0-9 last season, with the Falcons getting outscored by an average of 45-11 and the Minutemen 40-3. The Volunteers opened the Josh Heupel era last Thursday night with a 38-6 thumping of the Falcons, which was followed Saturday by the Panthers humiliating UMass 51-7.
“We’ve got enough tape on them to know who they are right now,” Pittsburgh seventh-year coach Pat Narduzzi said Monday during his weekly news conference. “I don’t think they held anybody out in that game, so we’ll know where their speed is, where the concerns are, where they like to throw the ball and what they want to do in the run game. I think their offensive line is big and physical. They look like an SEC offensive line.
“It will be a bigger challenge than Josh Heupel’s team at UCF as far as the O-line goes, and their backs are good.”
Saturday’s noon Eastern game on ESPN has been named the Johnny Majors Classic in honor of the late coach who guided the Panthers to the 1976 national championship and led the Vols to Southeastern Conference titles in 1985, 1989 and 1990.