College Football 9/5/09
W Kentucky Hilltoppers (Sun Belt)-Tennessee Volunteers (SEC)
By Mark • Saturday, September 5th, 2009 12:20 PM EST
Tennessee (0-0) vs. W Kentucky (0-0)
Line-Tennessee -31.5
The storied program of Tennessee takes on Western Kentucky in a first ever meeting. The Vols have a successful history, which gave them zero help in 2008 as they struggled to a 5-7 record. Western Kentucky has no history and a questionable future as the Hilltoppers played as an independent last year as required before gaining admittance to the Sun Belt in 2009. WKU was largely regarded as one of the poorer teams in the country and their 2-10 record could not prove otherwise.
Tennessee struggled early and often in 2008, but the struggles lied mainly with an offensive unit that was...offensive for lack of a better word. The Volunteers simply had no offensive punch and could not move the ball by any means and consequently were alien to the end zone. The Vols finished near the bottom nationally in total yards with 269 (#116) on average and scoring with 17 (#112) ppg. Tennessee had an extremely tough defense that held opponents to 17 points per game so I'd say they held up their end of the bargain and more. With their 'D' ranked a lofty #10 in the country, it's obvious the offense was to blame for the struggles last season. Not surprisingly the Volunteers 'O' has struggled in scrimmages against their defense which isn't a good sign considering only 6 players return on the defensive side. Seven return offensively and I don't know if that's good or bad.
The WKU offense was nestled right next to Tennessee in terms of national rankings and futility, managing an unimpressive 18 ppg which must have had their defense pointing fingers. If it wasn't the defense it was certainly the fans and coaching staff wondering why the program stepped up to play in the top division of college football. The Hilltoppers defense wasn't outstanding by any stretch, as opposing offenses were hitting the scoreboard with 27 points per contest, but the offense put them in many bad situations because they couldn't get the ball past midfield on many occasions. W Kentucky has 7 returning on offense and just 4 on defense, numbers similar to Tennessee with the lone exception being they lost their quarterback. Again I have to wonder if the offense will be any better with the same guys back.
Not even mentioning each teams ability (inability?) to cover spreads. Suffice to say the numbers were not very becoming. We know the Vols play a much tougher schedule and the $10,000 question is this; is a bad Tennessee team from a year ago better than a really bad WKU squad? My answer is yes by a lot, but I'm not sure it's by 31.
Pick: Western Kentucky +31.5
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