Tennessee heads to Baton Rouge for its SEC road opener Saturday morning against No. 25 LSU. The Tigers (4-1, 2-0 SEC) are winners of four straight after dropping the season opener to Florida State.
No. 8 Tennessee is 4-0 and coming off its lone bye week of the 2022 season.
There’a a handful of minor factors that are playing to Tennessee’s advantage entering the top 25 bout. The 11 a.m. local kick off will slow down the typically rowdy home crowd and LSU dual-threat quarterback Jayden Daniels is banged up after suffering minor back and knee injuries the last two weeks.
However, the biggest advantage is how each team spent last Saturday. LSU earned a hard nosed, emotional come-from-behind victory at Auburn that came down to the final minutes. Tennessee, on the other hand, was at home resting its legs after a posting its first 4-0 September since 2016.
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So how have Josh Heupel coached teams faired coming off of the bye week?
Heupel is 6-1 coming off open dates in his four previous years as a head coach and 1-0 in his one matchup coming off a bye while at Tennessee.
In his first year as head coach at Central Florida, Heupel went 2-0 coming off open dates. The Knights 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 bye week 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 second 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.
A season ago, Tennessee defeated No. 18 Kentucky, 45-42, in Lexington. The win marked Heupel’s first ranked win as Tennessee’s head coach.
Not only has Heupel’s teams performed well coming off of open dates, his offense’s have been phenomenal. Heupel coached teams are averaging 45 points per game coming off the open date.
If the Vols post those types of offensive numbers Saturday, they’ll likely fair well in Baton Rouge.
Kick off from Tiger Stadium is set for noon ET. Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky and Kris Budden are on the call for ESPN.
