A weekly look at our upcoming opponent's recent history, with animated drive charts and links to SB Nation game pages.

This is a long post full of moving pictures and stats, so I'm putting the conclusions and predictions both at the beginning and at the end.

Conclusions

• Memphis has a decent running back in Curtis Steele, a good receiver in Duke Calhoun, a quarterback who can get the ball to them, and a line that does a decent job at protecting the QB. As a package, though, it's a worse-than-most offense that should really struggle against Monte Kiffin's defense.
• The Tigers are giving up over 400 yards and 30 points per game against a relatively weak schedule, and should present few challenges for Montario Hardesty and the offense.
• Hoo-wee! These guys can punt!

Predictions

• Tennessee 42, Memphis 9

Schedule and Animated Drive Charts

Mississippi Rebels	9/6/09	loss 14 - 45
@ Middle Tenn. St. Blue Raiders	9/12/09	loss 14 - 31
Tenn.-Martin Skyhawks	9/19/09	win 41 - 14
Marshall Thundering Herd	9/26/09	loss 16 - 27
@ Central Florida Golden Knights	10/3/09	loss 14 - 32
UTEP Miners	10/10/09	win 35 - 20
@ Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	10/17/09	loss 16 - 36
East Carolina Pirates	10/27/09	loss 19 - 38

Two interceptions, a fumble, and a collapse at the end of the game. The drive chart makes it appear as if this game was closer than the 45-14 score indicates.

Well, they handled Tennessee-Martin.

Okay.

Oneathose you-can't-win-with-field-goals games.

Oh, the shame of losing to the pony-tailed knight. The most amusing part is the visual effect of those two consecutive one-yard drives.

A shootout with the pick-axed, efficient and muscular man's man!

A humiliating defeat at the wings of Southern Miss.

My, that is ugly, and I'm not talking about East Carolina's Captain D's logo, either. Three fumbles and an interception against 5 TDs from a fry cook can't be fun.

National Unit Rankings

Now on to the national rankings.

Offensive observations. Apart from being very good at protecting their quarterback and (probably consequently) being slightly better than average in the passing game, Memphis is worse than average at everything else on offense and are downright deplorable at actually putting points on the board.

Defense. Ditto the defense. Only slightly better than average at tackles behind the line of scrimmage, but worse than most at everything else including the all-important total defense. They're giving up over 400 yards and thirty points per game.

Special teams and Turnovers. Memphis can punt well (then again, so can Georgia), but they don't do so well returning either punts or kickoffs. They also rank in the triple digits in turnover margin.

Stastical Comparison

Here's how the two teams stack up against each other in each of the key statistical categories in Hooper's wizbang BlogPoll Computerer:

Rank	Team	WL	SOS	PED	RD	3DO	TD	PEO	OPPG	TO	3DD
27		64	16	16	25	83	13	63	22	59	13
110		102	106	70	105	81	100	81	98	70	33

Players to watch for

Observations

Running backs. It's a bit odd that the Tigers have a running back (Curtis Steele) ranked 28th in the nation with 99 yards per game and yet the team ranks 80th and gets only 134 yards per game on the ground. They spread the ball around between Steele and two other backs for some reason, but Steele appears to be solid and the best of the bunch.

Quarterbacks. Will Hudgens ranks behind Jonathan Crompton in passing efficiency and likely is not experiencing the upward trend that Crompton is.

Receivers/Tight Ends. Duke Calhoun appears to be the go-to receiver, nabbing over six receptions per game and gaining 95.5 yards per game, the latter of which ranks him 14th in the nation. He's the A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Alshon Jeffery of the week. Keep an eye on Carlos Singleton as well.

Defense. Nothing to fear here, really, but Greg Jackson leads the team in both tackles and tackles for losses with 7.14 and .79 per game respectively.

Special teams. Matt Reagan both punts and kicks field goals. His 45.30 punt average puts him at 4th in the nation. He's also solid kicking field goals, as he's tied for 42nd nationally.

Head to Head Comparisons

			Best Comparable	Result Against Best Comparable	Prediction
UT rush v. Memphis rush defense	172.13 (#42)	197.75 (#105)	Auburn (#96)	151	200
UT pass v. Memphis pass defense	207.63 (#72)	218.75 (#61)	Georgia (#73)	310	260
Memphis rush v. UT rush defense	107.75 (#25)	134.38 (#80)	South Carolina (#87)	65	75
Memphis pass v. UT pass defense	173.88 (#15)	232.13 (#46)	South Carolina (#41)	300	180
UT scoring offense v. Memphis scoring defense	29.13 (#46)	30.38 (#98)	Georgia (#89)	45	42
Memphis scoring offense v. UT scoring defense	17.75 (#22)	21.13 (#102)	WKU (#105)	7	9

Again, not math, but informed guesses.

Prediction? About 200 yards on the ground and 260 through the air for Tennessee, compared to around 75 and 180 respectively for Memphis.

Conclusions

• Memphis has a decent running back in Curtis Steele, a good receiver in Duke Calhoun, a quarterback who can get it to him, and a line that does a decent job at protecting the QB. Together, though, it's a worse-than-most offense that should really struggle against Monte Kiffin's defense.
• The Tigers are giving up over 400 yards and 30 points per game to inferior teams, and should present few challenges for Montario Hardesty and the offense.
• Hoo-wee! These guys can punt!

Predictions

• Tennessee 42, Memphis 9