Here’s the Week 1 preview, prediction and viewing guide for Monday’s football game between Tennessee football and Georgia Tech.
It will be the ACC vs. the SEC in Week One in Atlanta when the Tennessee Volunteers and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets face off. Both teams will be breaking in new quarterbacks, which always makes for an interesting game.
The Volunteers enter the season as the No. 25 team in the AP Poll after finishing 2016 as No. 22. It was predicted that last season would be Butch Jones’ best year as head coach but two tough losses in-conference derailed those dreams. Still, they finished 9-4 and enter 2017 looking to create a new identity. Injuries and inconsistency were issues all year long in 2016.
The Yellow Jackets hope their triple option blueprint still has some juice left. They finished the 2016 season with a 9-4 record as well, but went 4-4 in ACC play a season ago. Quarterback Matthew Jordan will work in as new quarterback as the defense looks for more respect on the defensive front.
Here’s how you can watch Monday’s Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech game:
Date: Monday, Sept. 4
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Location: Atlanta, GA
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Keys to Victory
The Volunteers have a new quarterback to break in. Quarterback Quinten Dormady will have an opportunity to lead the Tennessee offense in 2017, starting with Georgia Tech. Dormady was 11-of-17 with 148 passing yards in 2016. He’ll need to be a lot more consistent if he hopes for conference success.
The Yellow Jackets need to pressure the ball if they have any hope of winning this game. Their defense produced 16 sacks in 2016 and defensive tackle Patrick Gamble, who produced 7.5 of those, is gone. This isn’t a bad Georgia Tech defense but increasing the pressure would pay dividends for the win column.
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Prediction
This game should be close throughout, although if the Volunteers defense decides to show up it could get ugly in a hurry. Tennessee wasn’t a very healthy team on defense last season as the injury bug gave them fits all year long. If they can enter the game healthy and leave healthy, this game is their’s to lose.
Final Score: Tennessee 27, Georgia Tech 23