Tennessee football needs to exhibit short-term memory vs. Kentucky

After being squished by Georgia, Tennessee football looks to rebound against a defense-heavy Kentucky team, coming off a hot performance.

The Tennessee Volunteers are a team that no one really knows what to make of. They struggled with South Carolina, skated past Missouri and then got squished in a second half that was all Georgia, all the time. Some say they are a great quarterback away from a great season, but who knows at this point.

On the other side, Kentucky is a huge question mark.

After out-gaining, but losing to Auburn and then falling to Ole Miss by a missed extra point, they finally got in the win column behind a six interception performance against the likes of Mississippi State, who no one understands either quite frankly.

Whether we understand these teams and how good they are or not, here is how you can watch the matchup.

Date: Saturday, Oct. 17
Time: 12 p.m. ET
Location: Knoxville, Tenn.
Venue:  Neyland Stadium
TV: SECN
Live Stream: WatchESPN

Keys to Victory

For Kentucky, it starts once again with defense. It is easy to grab multiple interceptions when all your opponent does is throw, but that isn’t what you are getting with Tennessee. This is an offense that is balanced enough to run and throw the ball and be semi-successful doing both.

If Kentucky can slow down Tennessee’s offense, much like Georgia did, this could be a Big Blue victory on the road.

For Tennessee, they just have to keep Kentucky off balance. Kentucky has a run game that is decent enough, but can’t get much going down the field and that is going to be an issue in this game. If Tennessee can do enough on both sides of the ball to keep Kentucky off balance and unable to play the game plan they come in with, this has the signs of a victory on Rocky Top.

Prediction

Terry Wilson hasn’t been great but neither has Jarrett Guarantano. This will be a battle of middle of the pack teams that honestly could be a toss-up on Saturday morning. It’s an opportunistic Kentucky defense against a Tennessee offense who hasn’t exactly done much of anything consistently.

However, Tennessee has figured out this Kentucky thing in the past few years and I don’t think that changes.

Final Score: Tennessee 21, Kentucky 17