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Virginia vs. Tennessee odds, picks and predictions

Published

1 year ago

September 1, 2023

Virginia vs. Tennessee odds, picks and predictions

The Virginia Cavaliers and the Tennessee Volunteers open the regular season at Nissan Stadium in Nashville on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for noon ET (ABC). Below, we analyze BetMGM Sportsbook’s lines around the Virginia vs. Tennessee odds, and make our expert college football picks and predictions.

While technically this is a neutral-site game, don’t be mistaken. There will be plenty of burnt orange in the stands in the Music City, and few supporters of the Hoos, making this a home game for the Vols.

Virginia won just 3 games last season under new coach Tony Elliott, and the team canceled 2 games due to the terrible shooting deaths of 3 Cavaliers players. It was an awful season on and off the field in Charlottesville.

The bad news is that UVA has just 9 total starters returning, QB Brennan Armstrong is now under center for ACC rival NC State, and the offense is in shambles. The defense has some talent, especially along the defensive line, but if the offense can’t maintain long drives, the D will get tired out quickly.

The Volunteers enter the new campaign as a top-10 team. While Tennessee lost QB Hendon Hooker to the NFL, QB Joe Milton III is more than capable of running the offense, and running it well. He’ll have to do without WR Jalin Hyatt, also NFL-bound, but he still has WRs Bru McCoy and Squirrel White at his disposal.

Tennessee is No. 10 in the USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll.

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Virginia vs. Tennessee odds

Provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Friday at 1:01 a.m. ET.

Moneyline (ML): Virginia +1350 (bet $100 to win $1,350) | Tennessee -5000 (bet $5,000 to win $100)
Against the spread (ATS): Virginia +28 (-110) | Tennessee -28 (-110)
Over/Under (O/U): 56.5 (O: -105 | U: -115)

Virginia vs. Tennessee picks and predictions

Prediction

Tennessee 45, Virginia 13

Moneyline

Tennessee (-5000) is going to win this game, and win it handily, but no one needs $2 bad enough to risk $100. Not even the kid from Better Off Dead wants $2 that much.

PASS.

Against the spread

TENNESSE -28 (-110) laying 4 TDs seems like a lot. But the Volunteers have a prolific offense with plenty of downfield threats, while Virginia +28 (-110) will apply very little pressure from its defensive front, and the Hoos will offer very little resistance as a whole.

The Cavaliers are in shambles on offense, and it’s hard to see them getting much more than into the teens.

Over/Under

OVER 56.5 (-105) is the lean, but go lightly.

While I expect Tennessee to be able to score at will, I have my doubts that Virginia will contribute very much to the scoring. Do the Vols have enough on offense to do most of the heavy lifting to get this across the finish line? Maybe. I think the Vols get well into the 40’s, but the 50’s might be a bit ambitious in the opener. Still, go high, just be careful.

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Tennessee

Josh Heupel flips RB Daune Morris to Tennessee football from Southern Cal

Published

4 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

Josh Heupel flips RB Daune Morris to Tennessee football from Southern Cal

Oakland senior running back Daune Morris was heavily recruited by then-Louisville running backs coach De’Rail Sims when Morris was a freshman at Chattanooga Red Bank.

Sims continued recruiting Morris after he came to Tennessee as running backs coach even after Morris committed to Southern Cal in April.

That persistence and Tennessee’s push for a playoff berth in 2024 were big reasons why Morris flipped from the Trojans to the Vols, a move he announced Monday after an official visit to Knoxville over the weekend.

“(Sims) was one of my first ACC offers as a freshman,” Morris said. “He continued to recruit me, hit me up every day, and he just showed me consistency throughout the recruitment process.

“UT has always been in the back of my mind. I didn’t see me going there until I got on campus. Once I saw it for myself and the coaches continued to show me, it proved to me this is the place.”

The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Morris committed to USC on April 9, just four days after he announced a top 10 that included Tennessee.

“On my visits, it’s been the same-in, same-out,” Morris said. “Coach (Josh) Heupel and everybody showed me the same love. It’s been nothing different. To get that kind of love from an SEC school in my home state, it means a lot.”

He said the Vols’ success this season, especially that of junior running back Dylan Sampson, weighed heavily in his decision.

“Just understanding the people behind me in my home state and the trajectory that Tennessee has right now,” Morris said. “How the trajectory is going with the quarterback (Nico Iamaleava), with the athletes and with the running backs. Dylan Sampson doing his job, scoring 20 touchdowns. It just shows what they can do with the running back and how they use their running backs in the right situations.”

Morris is listed by 247Sports Composite as the No. 29 athlete nationally and No. 16 recruit in Tennessee for the 2025 class. He was No. 3 on The Tennessean’s 2024 Dandy Dozen, a ranking of the top players from the Nashville area for the Class of 2025. He is a three-star running back.

He had many power conference offers. That included SEC schools Auburn, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, along with Deion Sanders’ Colorado squad, Louisville and USC in his top 10.

Morris is healthy after having missed the better part of six games this season, most of that due to an ankle injury he suffered on the first snap of the Patriots’ Week 1 win over Independence.

He has been especially explosive in the TSSAA football playoffs, gaining 481 yards and scoring nine touchdowns over Oakland’s past two games. For the season he has 856 yards rushing and 16 TDs.

He had a breakout junior season at Oakland after transferring from Chattanooga. The Tennessee Titans Class 6A Mr. Football finalist and first-team all-area performer rushed for 2,012 yards, added 568 receiving yards and scored 36 total touchdowns in leading the Patriots to the Class 6A BlueCross Bowl for the fourth consecutive season.

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Could Tennessee football return to play Georgia in Athens in the playoffs?

Published

12 hours ago

November 25, 2024

Press Room

Could Tennessee football return to play Georgia in Athens in the playoffs?

A month removed from playing Georgia in Athens, could Tennessee football be returning to its former SEC East rivals’ home stadium for a play off game.

In ESPN’s Heather Dinich’s projected College Football Playoff rankings heading into the final week of the regular season, she has exactly this happening.

With the playoff game being played on either Dec. 20 or 21, it would be just days more than a month removed from the Vols falling to the Bulldogs 31-17 on the road.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

Dinich has this as the 8-seed and 9-seed game. With Georgia as the 8-seed, it opens the door for it to host a playoff game.

Unlike the NCAA Tournament in men’s and women’s basketball, there are no restrictions on teams in the same conference playing each other in the first game of the playoffs.

The last time the teams met, Tennessee took a 10-0 lead after one quarter of play. From there, Georgia outscored the Vols 31-7 without giving up a single second half point.

Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava threw for 167 yards on 20-for-33 passing with no touchdowns or interceptions. His favorite target proved to be Squirrel White who caught six passes for 45 yards. Miles Kitselman also caught four passes for 46 yards.

On the ground, Dylan Sampson ran for 101 yards and a touchdown. Kitselman also ran for a score.

Georgia was led by Carson Beck who completed 25-of-40 passes for 347 yards and two touchdowns.

Here is her full slate for the projected playoffs in this scenario:

First-Round Byes

1-seed Oregon (Big Ten champion)

2-seed Texas (SEC champion)

3-seed Miami (ACC champion)

4-seed Boise State (Mountain West champion)

First-Round Games

12-seed Arizona State (Big 12 champion) at 5-seed Ohio State

11-seed Indiana at 6-seed Penn State

10-seed SMU at 7-seed Notre Dame