Tennessee football is off to a 2-0 start to the 2024 season with a pair of blowout wins over Chattanooga and NC State. The Vols are looking to stay unbeaten this season when they face Kent State in their final tuneup before the start of SEC play.
Each week, the RTI team will provide game predictions for Tennessee’s matchup.
More From RTI: Complete Preview For Tennessee Football Versus Kent State
Ric Butler
This game is like a comic book. You know how Iron Man has to defeat the lower, street-level villains to set the scene before it’s time for the story to include the big bads like Thanos or Dr. Doom? That is what this game reminds me of. An early-story street-level villain to clean up before the big bads arrive.
Tennessee returns to Neyland Stadium on Saturday night for a wickedly late 7:45 p.m. ET kickoff. As I’m sure my RTI cohorts will also share, Kent State is at the bottom of the list when it comes to FBS teams. Credit to Kent State for competing at the FBS level, but the Golden Flashes rank dead last at No. 134 in ESPN’s FPI rankings entering the third week of the season.
Instead of going through keys to the game or specific matchups to watch, I’d imagine you know the drill by now. Tennessee will overwhelm their opponent with aggressive, early offense while the defense puts pressure on the opposing quarterback in the first quarter.
An area that I’ll be specifically watching for, though, is the wide receivers. I’m not saying that as if the receivers were bad against NC State, they just weren’t as factored into the gameplan when Tennessee was so dominant in the two tight-end sets. I just think it’s a good game to watch the receivers for two reasons. On one hand, it’ll be the final tune-up for Tennessee’s receiving group before the Oklahoma game and I think it’s important to make sure your stars feel confident walking off the field after the game. Get Chris Brazzell a few early touches, Dont’e Thornton the same, Bru McCoy the same. Whatever is enough to get them feeling good heading into next week, I think you aim there. Thornton didn’t record a catch against NC State so what better time to get the second-year Vol a few reps before a critical SEC opener against OU?
The other reason I’ll be watching the receivers is for when Tennessee’s starters get subbed out. What do Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley make of the opportunity? Can either freshman do anything to jump-start their rotational development heading into future seasons? How does QB Gaston Moore look connecting with his pass-catchers as Tennessee’s backup in-case-of-emergency QB?
Tennessee will put up points. As Jack said on the RTI: Press Pass this week, this could even be a “pick your number” type of game for Tennessee. I don’t know what Tennessee will be specifically working on so I’m not confident in my final score, but I’m very confident picking that the Vols put up a 50-burger at minimum while holding the Golden Flashes out of the endzone – make it 12 consecutive quarters to start 2024.
Prediction: Tennessee 66, Kent State 3
Jack Foster
This is probably the least exciting game remaining on the schedule. You could argue UTEP but I’ll bet a game late in the season has at least more significance than the Kent State game this weekend in Neyland Stadium.
The Flashes are the worst team in the FBS. Coming off a loss to FCS school St. Francis, who isn’t even a great FCS school, Kent State enters the weekend reeling, and it’s only going to get worse for Kenni Burns’ squad.
Nico Iamaleava won’t make it to halftime, and we’ll see plenty of Gaston Moore and Jake Merklinger, which is a good thing considering backup quarterback play wasn’t the best against Chattanooga in Week 1, specifically from Moore.
The biggest key for Tennessee in this game is to simply stay healthy, as a highly significant road trip to Norman looms. Expect the starters to attack early and often but not play long.
The lack of playing time from the starters may prevent Tennessee from reaching 70 points for the first time in the Josh Heupel era. But you know what? Let’s have some fun. After all, this is Heupel’s best team at Tennessee, and the talent gap between the Vols and Flashes is probably wider than any other matchup in the Heupel era.
The current record for most points scored in a single game in Neyland Stadium by Tennessee is 70 vs. Louisiana-Monroe in 2000. The Vols make history this Saturday, just topping the 70-point mark in what will be the largest blowout featuring a P4 team in this weekend’s college football slate.
Prediction: Tennessee 73, Kent State 6
Ryan Schumpert
Tennessee returns to Neyland Stadium this week for an anticlimactic sandwich game. The Vols aced their first test of the season last week against NC State and Kent State is their final non conference tuneup before they travel to Oklahoma for their crucial SEC opener.
But first Tennessee faces a Kent State team that might not be one of the top 150 college football teams in the entire country. The Golden Flashes lost to FCS St. Francis last week making it a real possibility that they don’t win a single game all season.
With that in mind, this is truly a game where Tennessee can name its own number. The Vols could score 100 points in this game if they wanted to. But I’m guessing that Nico Iamaleava and the rest of Tennessee’s offensive starters won’t even make it to halftime.
Still, Gaston Moore and Tennessee’s offensive backups should have plenty of success against the Golden Flashes and we’ve already seen how deep and talented the Vols’ defense is. Tennessee wins this one in a rout.
Prediction: Tennessee 59, Kent State 3
