Brent Venables praises Josh Heupel, Tennessee for strong early-season play ahead of Week 4 showdown

On Saturday, No. 15 Oklahoma will square off against No. 6 Tennessee. Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables isn’t taking the matchup lightly.

“It’s hard to say anyone is playing better in the country right now than Tennessee,” Venables said, per SoonerScoop’s George Stoia III.

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Brent Venables isn’t exaggerating. Tennessee is 3-0 and boasts an average win margin of 59.3 points per game. In Week 2, the Volunteers hammered the NC State Wolfpack, who was ranked No. 24 at the time, in 41-10 blowout fashion.

Tennessee’s offense is averaging the second-most yards per game in the country while its defense is allowing the second-least. Volunteers QB Nico Iamaleava has connected on 71.6% of his pass attempts this season for 698 yards and six touchdowns.

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Meanwhile, Tennessee’s backfield already has four players with over 100 rushing yards this season, led by Dylan Sampson, who boasts 357. Tennessee began the season as the No. 15 team in the nation and has soared to No. 6 in only three weeks.

Simply put, the Volunteers are a force to be reckoned with at the moment. Worse, they’re coming to Norman, Oklahoma, with a chip on their shoulder.

Tennessee has extra motivation against Oklahoma

After playing at Oklahoma from 1999-2000, Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel returned to the program and coached the Sooners from 2006-14. During that time, Heupel worked his way up the chain of command, ultimately serving as the program’s co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2011-14.

However, Heupel was fired after the 2014 season despite the team posting an 8-5 record and winning a bowl game. ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum believes Heupel’s history with Oklahoma will play a factor in the game on Saturday.

“It’s really a complicated history,” Finebaum said during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “When you when you think about what Heupel did for that program, and then when he was shown the door. These things happen. It was a brutal breakup. I expect Heupel to handle it extremely well Saturday, leading into the game or beginning today.

“But those fans at Norman are a little shell-shocked right now. I know they were able to bounce back a little bit, but I think they feel a big loss coming, and that is not really where they want to be playing their first SEC game.”

On Saturday, Tennessee and Oklahoma will face off at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ABC.