Tennessee Football: Sitewide Predictions for the WVU Game
The Tennessee Volunteers begin their season on Saturday as they take on the West Virginia Mountaineers. Here are our sitewide predictions for that game.
The Tennessee Volunteers begin their 2018 season in a neutral site game, as they take on the West Virginia Mountaineers in Charlotte. Kickoff will be at 2:30 CT/3:30 ET on CBS.
West Virginia comes into this game with a lot of hype surrounding them, considering they have one of the best quarterbacks and wide receivers in the country. Tennessee comes into this game looking to get a big win in their first game with head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Stetson Marlin’s Prediction:
The more I look at this game, the more I think Tennessee has the chance to surprise some people and come away with a win.
The Tennessee defense has a handful having to go up against Will Grier and David Sills this Saturday. On the other hand, Tennessee should be able to move the ball against the WVU defense, especially on the ground.
This will be a good game, but I still have to stick with my original prediction. The Mountaineers will pull away at the end to give the Volunteers an early loss.
West Virginia 38 – Tennessee 31
Mike Patton’s Prediction:
The debut of Pruitt has him facing the high-octane offense of West Virginia, led by Heisman candidate, quarterback Will Grier. How Pruitt designs a plan to stop the Mountaineers offense is key but the Tennessee offense and West Virginia offense will be the tipping point here. Look for Tennessee to get just enough offense to outlast West Virginia, as Jarrett Guarantano gets Vols fans all excited in this season opener.
Tennessee 34 – West Virginia 28
Kyle Schmidt’s Prediction:
Heading into Saturday’s game there are question marks for both teams. West Virginia is expected to have one of the best offenses in the country, led by starting quarterback Grier. The questions are on the defensive side of the ball. This is a defense that ranked 106th overall last season, giving up over 200 yds/game on the ground.
Tennessee is coming off the worst season in school history, 4-8. Pruitt, while considered to be one of the best defensive minds in the game, has never been a head coach before. To this point, he has said all of the right things but he has yet to coach a game. The Vols struggled to ever get anything going offensively and had a defense who could not stop the run.
Given the talent level that Tennessee will put on the field to go along with an all-star coaching staff, I am giving Tennessee a slight edge in this game. As long as Tennessee’s defensive line can get pressure Grier enough to throw off his timing to get a few stops, I believe Tennessee will be able to control the pace of the game bu running the ball. In the end, Tennessee will win a close, hard-fought game.
Tennessee 31 – West Virginia 28
Austin Wright’s Prediction:
I’m picking UT to win this weekend against West Virginia. I personally think the Volunteers will come out slow on offense at first but will gain momentum as the game goes on. The key for this matchup is going to be both teams’ defenses.
Tennessee 24 – West Virginia 17