Tennessee football enters its week six showdown at Arkansas coming off its first of two open dates in its 2024 season. The Vols are 4-0 (1-0 SEC) with critical wins over NC State and Oklahoma and dominant wins over outmatched Chattanooga and Kent State.
While the Vols had a week to rest and get healthy after a physical win in Norman, Arkansas is coming off its fifth game in as many weeks and a heartbreaking loss against Texas A&M. Tennessee is already a much deeper team than Arkansas and they enter the road matchup healthy while the Razorbacks are banged up.
“It’s a concern,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said of the open date situation. “We’re going to have to do a good job with some of our key players mentally, because we’re not probably going have them for at least a couple of days, some. And maybe get them back on Wednesday, hopefully. But that it is a big concern, And most of our injuries are offensively, which the ones that we’re most concerned about are offensively. And the big physical D-lines I think have taken a toll on our tight end position especially. That’s the one right now I’m most concerned about. But yeah, I think it gives a advantage.”
A rest advantage isn’t the only one that Tennessee has coming off the open date. Josh Heupel coached teams have been excellent coming off bye weeks so far in his career. Heupel’s teams are 8-1 coming off open dates in his career and 3-0 coming off open dates during his three seasons as Tennessee’s head coach.
Heupel’s offenses have been particularly strong after having an extra week to game plan. In those nine games, Heupel’s offenses are averaging 41.8 points per game including 35 points per game in his three games at Tennessee. The Vols 20-13 win over Texas A&M last season was the only game that a Heupel coach team didn’t score at least 34 points coming off the open date.
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In Heupel’s first season in Knoxville, Tennessee defeated No. 18 Kentucky, 45-42, in Lexington. The win marked Heupel’s first ranked win as Tennessee’s head coach. In 2022, Tennessee kicked off a fantastic October by dominating No. 25 LSU 40-13 in Baton Rouge.
In Heupel’s first year as head coach at Central Florida, the Knights were 2-0 coming off open dates. They defeated Lane Kiffin and FAU, 56-36, after inclement weather canceled UCF’s game against North Carolina the week earlier. UCF defeated Temple, 52-40, after its traditional open date later that season.
Heupel followed up his success coming off open dates in 2019 when UCF defeated East Carolina, 41-28, and Tulane, 34-31.
The fourth-year Tennessee head coach suffered his only defeat after a bye week in 2020 when UCF fell, 50-49, against Memphis. Heupel got things back on track later in the season when the Knights defeated Temple, 38-13.
The challenge is significant for Tennessee’s offense this weekend as they face a strong Arkansas defense in Fayetteville. While the Razorbacks’ defense has been strong so far this season, Tennessee’s offense will be the best that they’ve faced all season.
Kickoff from D.W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium is at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night in Fayetteville. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe are on the call for ABC.
