Former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram has his sights set on this weekend’s high-stakes game between Tennessee and Georgia from Athens.
During this week’s episode of The Triple Option podcast alongside hosts Rob Stone and coach Urban Meyer, Ingram showed off his homework as he broke down the numbers around both teams before making his prediction.
Ingram began his breakdown by noting the biggest uncertainty with Georgia’s team which has been their quarterback play over the last few weeks. Georgia has gone 3-1 in their last four games with a statement win over Texas in Austin, but Beck has really struggled with turnovers in that stretch.
“Carson Beck, I’m the one that’s been believing in Georgia because I’m like, he has to get off the struggle bus,” Ingram said. “Four straight games of multiple turnovers. Five total touchdowns and 10 turnovers in the last four games.”
Tennessee’s defense doesn’t present many advantageous situations, either.
“And this isn’t, like, a get-right game for him,” Ingram continued on to say. “Tennessee’s defense is, like, really good. They’re the only defense in the country that held every opponent under 20 points. They’re top five in the country in scoring defense, total defense, third down defense, and red zone defense. And they have one of the best pass rushers in the land in James Pearce.”
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Tennessee’s defensive gameplan this season has been to send pressure with one of the most stout defensive fronts in the country while opportunisitic defensive backs such as Jermod McCoy and Will Brooks see if they can capitalize on any mistakes – which they’ve certainly done a few times so far.
Ingram was one of Alabama’s best running backs in the Nick Saban era and has tagged Tennessee running back Dylan Sampson as an impact player in the game.
Ingram also stated that Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is “supposed” to be good for this weekend, but it certainly didn’t feel like he was reporting or confirming anything. If you don’t have your ear to the ground on all of the injury reports and updates this week, you’d probably think that the Tennessee quarterback was good to go. ESPN has a video on the Tennessee-Georgia game page that is titled “Vols coach expects QB Nico Iamaleava to be ready to go against Georgia,” after all. Stay tuned to the nightly injury reports for more on the Vols’ QB status.
“Then you talk about their quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, he got a little bit banged up last week but he’s supposed to be okay,” Ingram said. “We know he can run the ball, we know he can sling it, but if Tennessee wants to win this game I feel like they’re going to have to lean on Dylan Sampson. The Vols have the number-one rushing attack in the SEC and he’s just playing at a very high level.”
Ingram made his prediction for the upcoming contest, too.
“So, I expect kind of like a low-scoring game, defensive-driven game, and just based on their defense alone? I think Tennessee can keep this game close, so that is your Deuce-Deuce (under)Dog of the Week! I feel good about this one. Sometimes I feel good about the Dawgs, but I feel good about Tennessee going into Georgia – but, hey, what do I know at the end of the day? Georgia has their backs against the wall playing for their college football playoff lives right now. So they could come out and play like they did vs Texas and just be dominant. But I’m going with Tennessee to cover +9.5.”
No. 12 Georgia will host No. 7 Tennessee at 7:30 p.m. in Athens on Saturday night. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage from the SEC rivalry game this weekend.
Check out the clip from Mark Ingram below:
