Tennessee Football: Vegas likes the Vols in season opener

Tennessee Football kicks off its season this Saturday on the road against South Carolina, and Las Vegas opens the Vols as the favorite.

Tennessee football is entering into another season where they have some pretty high expectations. With a shortened season, the Vols won’t have the complete opportunity to live up to those expectations, but the Vols can still have a solid season with their ten SEC games currently on the schedule.

The first game on Tennessee’s SEC schedule is South Carolina, and the Vols will have to travel to Columbia for their Week 1 matchup.

Las Vegas likes the Vols early in this matchup. Tennessee opens as a three-point favorite over South Carolina, and the over/under opened at 48.

The line could change at any moment this week if a player on either team contracts COVID-19 or is unable to play this Saturday.

The Vols are currently ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll going into this week, with South Carolina on the outside looking in the top-25 rankings. That could all change after Saturday, or the Vols could continue to climb in the rankings with a good performance.

As we know, no game is a guaranteed win, and after two tough seasons at Tennessee, Jeremy Pruitt might know that better than anyone. It’s finally game week, but I don’t expect anything to change for Pruitt and his coaching staff.

The Vols seem to be a clear favorite just going off who’s returning and what each team’s record was last season. The Vols finished the 2019 season one of the hottest teams in college football while South Carolina finished with a 4-8 record.

Tennessee won’t have to worry about Ryan Hilinski, who threw for 319 yards and a touchdown as a freshman against the Vols after losing his starting quarterback job to Colorado State graduate transfer Collin Hill.

The Vols and Gamecocks are scheduled to kick off at 7:30 ET on the SEC Network Saturday night to end the day full of SEC games. Oh, how I’ve been waiting for this week.