Tennessee opens as big favorite over Vanderbilt

The Tennessee Volunteers picked up that key sixth win on Saturday night against South Alabama, moving to 6-5 on the season. It was a 60-14 win over the Jaguars, with Josh Heupel’s Vols responding nicely after a thumping at the hands of No. 1 Georgia.

Tennessee is now set to go bowling, but they’ve got one final regular season matchup left. The Vanderbilt Commodores will come to town on Saturday afternoon, looking to end Clark Lea’s first season on a high note. Vandy is just 2-9 on the year, holding wins over UConn and Colorado State. However, the ‘Dores have played competitive football over the last few weeks.

Vanderbilt gave Ole Miss a respectable effort, losing by just 14 points on Saturday night. They fell to Kentucky 34-17 before that, after losing 37-28 to Missouri. Vandy nearly left South Carolina with an upset win, but a late game touchdown secured the win for the Gamecocks. The Clark Lea era started with a disastrous blowout loss to ETSU, but his team has fought back down the stretch.

Tennessee has opened as a 31 point favorite, per DraftKings Sportsbook. Vanderbilt closed as 36 point underdogs on Saturday against Ole Miss, for what it’s worth. The total is set at 63 points.

I’ll be honest — 31 seems like a steep number for how competitive Vanderbilt has been playing lately. Tennessee should take care of business, but I’m not sure they’ll cover that number.

Kickoff is set for 3:45 p.m. ET time, with SEC Network carrying the action.

Odds/lines subject to change. T&Cs apply. See DraftKings.com/sportsbook for details.