‘Those things are what’s going to cost you’ – Cole Cubelic makes his prediction for how the Tennessee vs Texas A&M game will play out, and it’s a different take than most have

The Tennessee Volunteers travel to College Station this weekend for a matchup against the Texas A&M Aggies.

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

ESPN’s Cole Cubelic dropped this take on this weekend’s matchup between Texas A&M and Tennessee, and it’s a little different than the take that most analysts have about the game.

Quite a few folks are predicting that Tennessee will beat Texas A&M in College Station this weekend. The Aggies are a talented team who haven’t played well consistently this season (they’re 4-5 as a result). Because of that, most analysts have the Vols winning a close game (ESPN’s Greg McElroy has Tennessee winning 23-21).

Cubelic didn’t get a final score prediction for the game, but he thinks Tennessee gets a “fairly comfortable” win.

“I think (Texas A&M QB) Marcel Reed makes a couple of mistakes in this game,” said Cubelic. “Can A&M keep it close? Maybe, but you’re going to need some of those bigger bodies inside to step up because Tennessee is going to try to run right at you. They’re going to do it with bigger bodies. And what does Tennessee hit often? Bounce out and bounce back runs.

“The cutback runs are big, and the runs that bounce to the outside are big, and that’s a little bit of an issue for this A&M defense. Jumping out of gaps, overplaying, playing under blocks at times — those things are what’s going to cost you against the Tennessee run game. I think Tennessee has a big day on the ground, and I think they win this game. I think it goes over the total (the over/under is 44.5), and I think a lot of that is Tennessee. I think it’s a fairly comfortable win.”

It’s worth noting that Cubelic made his prediction before the SEC injury report came out on Thursday night, which revealed that Vols left guard Nic Moore will miss the game due to an illness.

Sham Umarov will start at left guard in place of Moore. Umarov had some issues at times while playing right guard earlier this season, but maybe he’ll slot in better at left guard while playing between left tackle David Sanders Jr and center Sam Pendleton.

Tennessee and Texas A&M will kick off at 2:00 PM CT/3:00 PM ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.

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