Tennessee hasn’t beaten Arkansas in Fayetteville since 2001.

The Vols will be hoping to end that streak on Saturday.

Tennessee has only played Arkansas on the road four times since that win in 2001, so it’s not like the Vols have had a lot of opportunities in Fayetteville, but some pretty good Tennessee teams have lost on the road against Arkansas (if the Vols beat Arkansas in 2024 in Fayetteville, Tennessee likely would’ve hosted a College Football Playoff game).

ESPN’s Cole Cubelic details how he thinks the Tennessee vs Arkansas game will play out

Arkansas hasn’t been very good in Ryan Silverfield’s first season as the head coach. The Razorbacks are 2-3 with blowout losses to Utah, Georgia, and Texas A&M.

So despite being a road game, the Vols are favored by 13.5 points.

ESPN’s Cole Cubelic doesn’t think that’s too big of a spread as he feels like the Vols will get a “big win” over the Razorbacks on Saturday.

“[Arkansas has] Sutton Smith and Braylen Russell — they can get guys the football in space,” said Cubelic. “They can create. They’ve just got to find creative ways to get them the ball. (The Arkansas) quarterback can’t lock on. That’s going to be a bit of a problem. The edge pressure has been a problem for Arkansas in the past, and this Tennessee defense is going to bring it in different ways.

“I don’t think they can manage this front seven for Tennessee. I think Tennessee now goes a little bit more game manager at quarterback with George MacIntyre. [Tennessee is] going to lean on the run game. 13.5 (point spread) is not too much in this game for Tennessee. I think on the road they dominate on the ground, and their defense takes the ball away and they get a big win.”

Arkansas is almost certainly going to sell out to stop the run and make Vols quarterback George MacIntyre beat them with his arm. It’ll be interesting to see if Tennessee is able to run the ball anyway. If they are, then this will be a long day for the Razorbacks’ defense.

But if Arkansas can stop the run, Vols fans will get a good look at how good the passing game is with MacIntyre.

Tennessee and Arkansas are set to kick off at 3:15 PM CT/4:15 PM ET. The game will air on the SEC Network.