Tennessee is a trendy pick today

T he Volunteers are a hot pick with prognosticators today. On television and on the web you see many experts saying the Tide is ready for an upset.

SECFootballBlog:
No. 2 Alabama at Tennessee – Alabama will lose this week vs. Tennessee. The Vols are playing inspired football. Coach Fulmer is most likely not your favorite coach, but he gets those boys ready to play. They had a great game vs Miss State last week, and Miss State is not a walk in the park.

If I am wrong about the Bama game, I will say I am wrong, but I think The Vols are a determined team right now.

Anybody can look good (or bad) against Mississippi State. MSU has a pathetic offense—the Bulldogs couldn’t even score on Auburn while the Tigers were torched by a mediocre West Virginia team for over 30 points. Judging a program by how it plays against Mississippi State isn’t using a sound measuring stick. The Bulldogs aren’t reliable because they play more erratically than perhaps any team in the SEC.

Scout.com’s Devil’s Advocate debate, Jeffery Stewart:
There’s been a general leveling of the playing field in college football thus the disparity that once existed between the haves and have nots has largely vanished.

Right. And that makes coaching much more important. Do you think Phil Fulmer is in the same league as Nick Saban? Do you think the Volunteer staff is in the same league as the Tide staff?

Of course not. Once David Cutcliffe left Knoxville, the Volunteers fell apart. Coincidence? I think not.

Conversely the Vols are coming off their best offensive performance of the season and are demonstrating a growing consistency and confidence in the the new scheme installed by Dave Clawson. This is the point in the season when a program could expect to see major progress after adopting a new scheme.

Again, using Mississippi State as a yardstick is foolish.

Tennessee could easily defeat Alabama; however, it must play sound football—something it hasn’t been able to do against top opponents since 1999. Will that trend change? What do you guys think? Any score predictions?

Road Warriors
Does Alabama play differently on the road vs. at home? Here are some players and Coach Nick Saban talking about it:

And since we are hours from kickoff, here is a recap of Auburn’s loss to West Virginia: