The contest between No. 12 Tennessee football and Arkansas figures to be a high-scoring affair, considering each team has an explosive offense and each team at times has been defenseless.
Hogs quarterback Taylen Green brings to Neyland Stadium on Saturday (4:15 p.m. ET kickoff) an explosive resume. He leads the nation in total offense (367.8 yards per game), passing for 279.6 yards per game and rushing for 82.2 yards per game, which ranks ranks third in the SEC. Green operates an attack that has racked up 99 plays of 10+ yards.
Tennessee football quarterback Joey Aguilar is second in the SEC in passing yards (1,459) and touchdown passes (13) and fourth in total offense (303.4 yards per game). He operates an attack that leads the nation in scoring (51.0 points per game) and is second in total offense (536.4 yards per game).
Couple that with the defensive struggles of the Vols and Hogs and the over/under of 69 points seems enticingly low.
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Arkansas’ defense is last in the SEC in points allowed, total defense, run defense and third-down defense. It is 15th in the SEC in passing yards allowed.
On the other side, the Vols’ defense has struggled as well. Tennessee football is last in the SEC in passing yards allowed per game, 15th in scoring defense and 14th in total defense. While UT is 10th in run defense (115.2 yards per game), it has allowed 198 rushing yards to two SEC opponents – Georgia and Mississippi State.
Coming off an open date, the Vols must figure out a scheme to contain Green. They also must improve the run defense and run offense. While UT is averaging almost 200 rushing yards per game, they have managed just 125 against Georgia and 131 against Mississippi State.
Despite the Razorbacks beign second in the SEC in rushing (213.8 per game), they yield 168 rush yards per game.
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Just like Tennessee football, Arkansas is also coming off an open date, but the past two weeks have seen plenty of activity in Fayetteville. First of all, head coach Sam Pittman was fired after his team basically quit in a 56-13 home blowout loss to Notre Dame.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, the former Hogs head coach until fired in 2011 after a scandal, has been named interim head coach. Petrino immediately fired three defensive coaches, including the defensive coordinator, and hired two coaches who most recently had been in the XFL or USFL or UFL. He also hired a safeties coach who was in high school a year ago.
Petrino wants a defense that will be simpler, get aligned faster, stop the run, tackle better and play with effort.
New defensive coordinator Chris Wilson figures to energize the defense. He won a Super Bowl as an Eagles assistant, served as DC at Mississippi State from 2011-12 and was an assistant at Oklahoma (2006-09) when Vols coach Josh Heupel was on the staff and UT offensive coordinator Joey Halzle was a quarterback.
Halzle said Wilson is a high-energy guy who will have his players ready to play hard.
Wilson’s UFL team led the league in takeaways the past two years while UT leads the SEC in turnovers at 13.
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A year ago, Arkansas shut down Tennessee’s offense in a 19-14 upset, blanking the Vols in the first half, and holding UT to 332 total yards, thanks to a three-man front that confounded UT’s offensive line in run blocking and pass protection. The Hogs managed four sacks.
Green didn’t have a great game against UT in 2024. He was 19 of 27 passing for 266 yards and was held to -5 yards on nine attempts. In fact, he got hurt in the fourth quarter, and backup quarterback Malachi Singleton was the one who led the game-winning drive. Tennessee footbal would love to hold Green to those numbers at Neyland.
Running back Mike Washington, who has rushed for 393 yards and averaged 6.4 yards per carry, and receiver O’Mega Blake, who has 30 catches and has led the team in receptions in each of five games, lead Green’s supporting cast. Four other Hogs have between 11 and 14 catches.
Although they have struggled at times to stop the run and the pass, Tennessee’s defense has scored four touchdowns. The Vols have been without two starting cornerbacks and two starting defensive tackles for most of this season. Both tackles, Jaxson Moi and Daevin Hobbs, are expected to play against the Hogs, but All-American corner Jermod McCoy, who tore is ACL in January, is still out.
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The four keys for Tennessee football:
*Contain Green. He’s as dangerous as a scrambling runner who can improvise as he is a pocket passer.
*Run for over 200 yards. Under Heupel, UT is 31-2 when it hits the 200-yard mark.
*Convert on third down. Arkansas has the worst third-down defense. This not only keeps drives alive but keeps Green off the field.
*Be alert. Watch for fake punts or onside kicks or halfback passes. You can expect Petrino to employ new wrinkles. Just as UCLA did in its upset of Penn State.
Prediction: Tennessee 44-34.
The post JIMMY’S COLUMN: Expect high-scoring affair between Tennessee football and Arkansas first appeared on Off The Hook Sports with Dave Hooker.
