‘No one is paying attention to this game’ — National talking head puts Tennessee Vols on upset alert against Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday
Josh Pate sees the Vols as being an under-the-radar upset candidate on Saturday against the Hogs.
The Tennessee Vols and the Arkansas Razorbacks are set to do battle on Saturday afternoon at Neyland Stadium in a game that, on a busy Saturday across the country, hasn’t gotten all that much attention nationally.
However, one notable talking head seems to think it’s a game that a lot of people could be flipping over to by the time Saturday evening rolls around.
On3 Sports’ Josh Pate, who hosts the eponymous “Josh Pate’s College Football Show” on YouTube, sees a very competitive game on Saturday, and put Tennessee – who is favored by 12.5 points as of Friday – on upset alert on his show on Thursday.
Josh Pate putting the Vols at a 7 on his “upset alert concern meter” this weekend against the Razorbacks
“I’ve already got some really good ideas for what the celebration graphic could be, what the phrase on the celebration graphic could be if Arkansas wins this thing,” Pate said. “Can you imagine Bobby Petrino and the boys ride into Neyland, they pull the outright upset, and then Arkansas football, on the Twitter account, just leans fully into the joke of the thing. Two words: road rash. And then they just ride out of there. Unbelievable cinema, theater.
“To do it, something wild is going to have to happen, but it may be possible because Arkansas has got a top twenty passing offense. Tennessee pass defense [is] in the one hundreds. So, what we’re thinking there is I’m pretty sure Tennessee is going to get theirs. They’re off a bye, they’re at home, they’re going to get theirs. Arkansas could as well. How often do we love betting on interim coaches on this show? Because you never know what portion of a locker room or an organization is galvanized because status quo has been broken.
“There is wild variants in each quarterback. Taylen Green could blow up or he could implode. I’m not quite sure Joey Aguilar is going to implode, but he could have a C game. We’ve seen his A game before. If he plays his A game, they’re going to win and they cover.
“I’m going to put a 7 on this game. I think it’s going to be lowkey way more competitive than America is ready to admit. I don’t think most of America even knows this game is happening. I think there are four or five SEC games bigger than this one this week, and no one is paying attention to this game. Except us, and if my neck wasn’t strained, I would pat myself on the back right now.”
Although Pate seems to think that no one nationally is paying attention, a certain set of someones is 100% paying attention this week, and that’s the Tennessee defense.
Arkansas RB Mike Washington made a comment this week that this game should be “fun” for the Hogs’ offense against the Vols’ defense as it has a lot of “holes”, and according to Mike Keith, that comment has made its way back to the players on the Tennessee defense. It’s good to have confidence, but it’s probably not the best idea to announce that out loud and give out bulletin board material, particularly when going on the road to a deafening environment like Neyland Stadium.
We’ll find out soon enough if the Tennessee defense can make Washington and the Razorbacks eat those words and can avoid becoming the latest team to fall victim to the upset bug during this wild 2025 season.
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