After a narrow win on the road against Auburn, LSU now returns home for its biggest test of the season so far against Tennessee.
This is the first time the two teams have played each other in Tiger Stadium since the infamous LSU win in 2010. This time, Tennessee enters the game as the favorite and the No. 8 team in the country, trying to prove itself as a national power.
Leading up to the game, I got the chance to talk to Andrew Peters of The Daily Beacon, who serves as Sports Editor and covers Tennessee Football. Here is the conversation I had with Andrew and what he had to say about this Tennessee team.
Rauterkus: Now in the second year under Josh Heupel and off to a fast start, what’s the general feeling and expectation around this Tennessee team right now?
Peters: “With Tennessee fans, every year, no matter who the coach is, no matter what last year looks like, kind of like LSU fans, too, Tennessee fans are going to be excited. And when Josh Heupel came in and had a 7-6 year, a really solid first year, that just gave fans more reason to kind of just buy into what he’s doing here and kind of just buy into thinking that this next year is gonna be a great season. And so far, Josh Heupel has lived up to the hype. I think Tennessee fans, for the most part, are very bought in at this point, and are very ready to say this team can be a contender.”
Rauterkus: Hendon Hooker obviously has been the biggest talking point of the team so far. How would you describe his performance relative to his expectations going into the year?
Peters: “I think he had really high expectations coming into the season. He wasn’t even a starter at this point last year. Well, actually, he just had his first start at this point last year, people from the gate had pretty high expectations, but I think he exceeded them in his first year with Tennessee, even though he didn’t play the entire year. And then, this season, I think it kind of just built off of that and fans were ready to declare the Hendon Hooker Heisman campaign, which at the beginning of the season, I thought that was a pretty insane thought. But, you know his numbers, his name is kind of getting higher on the list of guys who can take on the Heisman this year. So I think that what Hendon Hooker has been most of all, he’s just been kind of a beacon of hope for a fanbase that hasn’t seen a lot of it in the past couple of years.”
Rauterkus: The passing game has earned most of the headlines so far this season, but how would you assess the Tennessee run game?
Peters: “The running game, it obviously gets a little bit overlooked just because the passing game is so good. But Jabari Small is the main guy, he went down with an injury, the same game [Cedric] Tillman did against Akron, but he was good, nothing serious there. And so he gets the majority of the touches, but he kind of splits time with Jaylen Wright, who is not as big of a name. I wouldn’t say he’s not as talented but he’s just, the production hasn’t been there as much as it has been for Jabari Small. So those are the two main guys.”
Rauterkus: Tennessee’s defense, especially defending the pass, has been the big weakness. What’s the biggest issue there?
Peters: “The biggest issue by far is the secondary. They can’t stop the pass game for the life of them even against the two easy games, so to speak against Ball State and Akron. They still struggled defending the pass. But luckily, the defensive line, also the defensive line didn’t look great at the beginning of the season but they’re kind of coming to their own. They looked great against Florida. But there’s only so much they can do when the quarterback throws a screen pass, and the receiver gets 40 yards because the secondary can’t make a tackle. The secondary is just, I mean, there’s no sugar coating it. They’re just flat out bad. That’s going to be Heupel’s number one priority going into the offseason, just recruiting defensive backs, recruiting safeties, just getting something because you know they’re not going to win a national championship with that secondary. So the defensive line is solid, the secondary is really bad and needs a lot of work.”
Rauterkus: Tennessee and LSU don’t play often, but there have been some memorable games. How do Tennessee fans view the LSU game?
Peters: “It’s not a rivalry by any means. With Tennessee fans, if you’re an SEC team, and you’re playing the Vols, Tennessee fans are gonna hate that team. And so naturally, there’s a lot of a lot of anger towards LSU fans, but I think this is one of those games that Tennessee fans have just felt for a long time that LSU just controls this series, which I think Tennessee leads all time and wins. But obviously, recently, LSU has had the upper hand. But I think for a lot of Tennessee fans, especially college students and younger fans, they think of that 2010 game, I believe it was when it looked like Tennessee was gonna come away with the win, and then had too many guys on the field. So I think it’s just a lot of things like that. And then the 2017 game was just an absolute blowout. But I think coming to this game specifically, Tennessee fans are just looking to kind of turn the tables.”
Rauterkus: Lastly, what’s your prediction for this game?
Peters: I think the way Tennessee wins this game is through its offense, so it will need to score a lot of points. I think LSU’s offense will be able to put up big numbers on the Vols’ weak secondary, so this one will be high scoring.
Prediction: Tennessee 42-34 LSU
