Lane Kiffin’s long awaited return to Knoxville will be in-front of a 102,455 person crowd as the University of Tennessee announces a totally sold out game for the most anticipated matchup of the Heupel era thus far.
Tennessee is also planning for a “checker” setup where fans seats are assigned certain colors, either white or orange, that let Neyland stadium resemble a checkerboard in the seats.
“Need it to be a hostile environment. We need to make it tough for those guys to communicate and our fans understanding that they’re playing with tempo in their communication.” Josh Heupel said. “We need to make it loud and make it uncomfortable for them.”
Confirmed.
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) October 11, 2021
This game also marks the return of Lane Kiffin to Tennessee. He previously served as head-coach of the Volunteers in 2009 where he led them to 7-6 season before departing to USC. Kiffin also had brief stints with Alabama and Florida Atlantic before finding his way to Ole Miss. They are currently ranked #13 in the country with a 4-1 record (1-1 in the SEC).
For the unranked Volunteers, this has the potential to be a statement game. The Vols are currently ranked #2 in total offense and #3 in points per game across the entire SEC.
Hendon Hooker has also been showing up for the Vols and this will be his biggest stage thus far. If the Vols can continue the immaculate connection between Hooker and JaVonta Payton then we could have quite the interesting matchup on our hands.
Still, Ole Miss has been one of the most exciting teams in the SEC this year with their Heisman level QB, Matt Corral. The Vols will have to capitalize on the rare mistakes of Corral (Corral has not thrown an interception in 201 attempts, the longest streak in the NCAA) and make sure to capitalize on those big defensive stops.
The Rebels are a -145 favorite while Tennessee stands at a +120 money line. Against the spread, the Rebels sit at -2.5. Over under is currently 82.5.
Kickoff is set for 7:30pm this Saturday.
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