Phillip Fulmer coached over 200 Tennessee Volunteers games. Never once was he a 33-point underdog in a game against anyone in America. Alas, that's the fate the Vols are going to have to deal with this Saturday in a game they aren't expected to be competitive in against the No. 1 team in the land, the Alabama Crimson Tide.
This matchup in Week 7 of the regular season will take place on Saturday, October 21, 2017,
at 3:30 p.m. ET at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL. This game will be broadcast on CBS.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Tennessee +33
Alabama -33
Over/Under Check Back Later
Odds Analysis
Surely, credit deserves to go out to the Crimson Tide for the way they've manhandled teams this year. The Texas A&M game was relatively close, but they haven't had a game where they were even remotely threatened this season.
That said, this spread is really an indictment on the Tennessee program more than anything else. The Volunteers haven't been in the same stratosphere as Alabama in years and years, but to be 33-points to the worse against anyone in America is damning of a program that used to actually be a national power.
Remember that the Vols were feeling good about themselves after beating Georgia Tech in Atlanta in Week 1. Then came four games in a row in which the team scored 20 points or fewer. The only win of the bunch came against a Massachusetts team that is surely one of the worst five in FBS this year. Even that 17-13 victory was a war just to survive.
Quarterback Battle
They say when you have two quarterbacks, you have none. In the case of the Volunteers, they know they have no quarterbacks and are just hoping they can make one out of their two.
Quinten Dormady doesn't figure to get back on the field this year. He completed just 55.5 percent of his passes for the campaign with six touchdowns and six interceptions. The final straw was his role in a 41-0 whipping at the hands of Georgia a few weeks ago, a loss which caused Butch Jones to reassess his entire program.
The problem is that you can't just feed Jarrett Guarantano to the wolves forever. The sophomore was a sitting duck in the pocket against South Carolina last week. He is only averaging 4.5 yards per pass attempt, and though he would love to get out and move around outside the pocket, he's under so much pressure behind a bad offensive line that he isn't really getting the opportunity to do so.
Key Stat
6.1 – The number of points Alabama is conceding per game in the first three quarters this season.
The Crimson Tide have allowed a grand total of just 36 points in the first three quarters of games this year. It's an unbelievably dominant defensive stat that cannot be ignored. Sure, the Tide have allowed five fourth quarter touchdowns this year, but why care about giving up touchdowns when the average score of your game going into the fourth is 37-6?
Alabama has more points scored in the first quarters of games this year (100) than it has allowed (71).
Free ATS Pick
There just isn't any reason to justify taking Tennessee in this game. The Vols were clocked by 41 points and came nowhere near scoring against Georgia a few weeks ago, and this is a harder game at Bryant-Denny.
Alabama didn't cover last week against Arkansas in spite of its 41-9 victory, and it never came close to doing so against Texas A&M as a 25-point chalk.
The Crimson Tide would love to make a statement here to the rest of America, especially after watching four Top 10 teams lose to unranked teams last week. This is the best team in the land, and it isn't even remotely close.
College Football Odds: Alabama 45, Tennessee 7
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