The Tennessee Volunteers and Akron Zips do battle Saturday in week 3 college football action from Neyland Stadium.
The Akron Zips will look to rebound from a 52-0 loss at the hands of Michigan State last time out. DJ Irons has thrown for 409 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 62% passing while Cam Wiley leads Akron’s ground attack with 114 rushing yards and a pair of scores this season. Shocky Jacques-Louis has 11 catches for a team-high 153 yards while Daniel George has 114 receiving yards as well on the year. On defense, Darrian Lewis and Bubba Arslanian each have a team-high 15 total tackles while Akron’s defense as a whole has 3 sacks and 3 interceptions this season.
The Tennessee Volunteers will be out to add to their 34-27 win over Pitt in their last matchup. Hendon Hooker’s thrown for 546 yards and 4 touchdowns on 67.2% passing while Joe Milton’s thrown for 113 yards and a TD on 88.9% passing. Jaylen Wright leads Tennessee with 135 rushing yards and a score while Jabari Small also has 80 rushing yards with 3 TDs. Cedric Tillman leads the Vols in receiving with 15 catches for 230 yards while two other Vols have 100+ receiving yards this season. On defense, Aaron Beasley has a team-high 22 total tackles while the rest of the Vols defense has 4 sacks and 3 interceptiosn this season.
Akron is 5-11 ATS in their last 16 road games and 8-24 ATS in their last 32 games overall while the under is 3-0-1 in their last 4 non-conference games. Tennessee is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games and 2-8 ATS in their last 10 games following a win while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 home games.
I get the case to be made for an underdog like Akron getting an extreme amount of points here, but the problem is that while I was high on Akron’s potential this season, they haven’t shown it early on and that’s not good against a Tennessee team that dismantled a Ball State team that’s better than what Akron’s fielding right now. I think this one has potential to get real ugly. Give me Tennessee in a rout.