College Football Game of the Week: No. 6 Tennessee vs. No. 11 Georgia

The SEC rivalry between the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs will be renewed this weekend. The Vols head to Athens to face the Dawgs in the 2024 rendition.

Georgia leads the all-time series 28-23-2. They’ve beaten Tennessee the last seven times the two teams have met.

That being said, the Vols find the Dawgs in the most vulnerable situation they’ve been in years. Georgia is coming off of an ugly loss they suffered in Oxford against No. 16 Ole Miss.

In Georgia’s loss, they featured a disappointing and lackluster offense, only scoring 10 points. Their quarterback, Carson Beck just didn’t look like himself, coming up short when his team needed him most.

Beck’s entire season has been a downgrade compared to his performance last year. Last year, he passed for just shy of 4000 yards, and this year he has just about 2500 passing yards.

Granted, this year isn’t over yet, but if he was to match last year’s passing yards, he’d need to average about 375 years per game. That isn’t going to happen, considering Beck is averaging 278 years per game this season.

The Vols are coming off a very decisive win over a disappointing Mississippi State team. In that game, the Vols’ QB Nico Iamaleava came out with an apparent injury, making him questionable for the Georgia game. Tennessee Head Coach Josh Heupel said that he expects Iamaleava to be ready.

Iamaleava is a freshman who is tasked with managing one of the NCAA’s top wide receiver corps, so he has been aided in his development by Heupel’s run-heavy game plan. The Vols have about half of their total yards being rushing yards, and half being passing yards.

This is very unusual as teams usually have more passing yards than rushing yards. Georgia’s defense will need to stay ready to stop the running game if they are going to have any success in this game.

Georgia’s run defense seems to be getting worse since 2019. In 2019-2022, they were among the top three run defenses in the nation, allowing less than nine rushing touchdowns in each of those years. In 2023, they were in 37th place ranking the top run defenses in the country, allowing 13 rushing TDs.

In 2024, they have already allowed 16 rushing TDs. A team with good RBs will look to exploit this weakness.

The Dawgs’ defensive live will play a big part in this game in both the run and passing game. Tennessee’s offensive line has not been stellar this year.

They have not been able to effectively protect whoever is passing the ball for them, as they have given up big sacks this season, which has really hurt them when they are in the red zone looking for a touchdown. When you’re playing a good team like Georgia, you need to be scoring touchdowns when you’re in the red zone, and not settling for three every time you get inside the 20.

Georgia had an impressive showing when they were No. 5, and they beat No. 1 Texas. The Vols also had a signature win this year when they were No. 11, and they upset No. 7 Alabama.

Both teams have had rollercoaster years this season. It will be a tightly contested game this Saturday at 7:30 in Athens at Sanford Stadium.

Chase Yingling is a third-year student majoring in digital/print journalism. To contact him, email cey5100@psu.edu.