Ohio five star decommit and flip to Tennessee vols football over Alabama and Auburn choose vols…
Ohio five star decommit and flip to Tennessee vols football over Alabama and Auburn choose vols…
Bowl on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. The top-seeded Ducks (13-0), who won the Big Ten, have a first-round bye.
“We’ve all kind of tried to treat this as a normal game,” Tennessee fifth-year senior safety Will Brooks said, “but it’s in the backs of our heads that it’s a playoff game.”
Points could be at a premium, with the Buckeyes leading the nation in scoring defense (10.9 points allowed per game) and total defense (241.1 yards allowed per game) and with the Vols tied for fourth in scoring defense (13.9) and ranked fourth in total defense (278.3). Both teams are also stout defensively in the red zone, with Ohio State having allowed just 10 touchdowns in 29 opportunities and with the Vols having yielded 15 in 34 chances.
Yet this two-week window for analyzing the first Ohio State-Tennessee game inside “The Horseshoe” is almost at an end. Then it will be up to the play between the sidelines.
“At the end of the day, it’s just another football game,” Vols fifth-year defensive tackle Bryson Eason said. “I know the stage and the opportunity and the hype and all that other stuff. That’s cool and we love it, but a lot of the guys on this team just love ball. We’ve built bonds, and we’re so close, so why would we want to stop now?
“It’s not about the playoff. It’s about us just wanting to keep playing football.”
