ESPN College GameDay heading to Oklahoma for SEC showdown with Tennessee
ESPN’s College GameDay is making a trip to Norman, Oklahoma, next Saturday for the first-ever SEC game there when Tennessee and Oklahoma face off, the show announced.
Along with being a pivotal SEC matchup, the game will also mark the return to Norman for Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, who led the Sooners to a national championship as a quarterback and was once an assistant coach there.
Both teams enter the primetime matchup undefeated, as the Sooners moved to 3-0 on Saturday afternoon and, as of the announcement for the location, Tennessee was leading Kent State, 51-0. The Volunteers went on to win, 71-0.
And beyond a ranked, primetime game — and GameDay in town — there’s plenty of intrigue to the matchup.
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For one, there’s the young quarterbacks taking the reins of their respective offenses, and to varying degrees of success. Jackson Arnold has had his ups and downs as the Sooners offense has yet to put together a dominant full game. And for Tennessee, Nico Iamaleava has looked every bit the part of a difference making quarterback, and his ability to keep Heupel’s high-powered offense moving has overshadowed some of his mistakes borne out of inexperience.
And both of these squads feature what seem to be stingy defenses, entering the Week 3 with Top 20 scoring defenses.
Tennessee opened as a solid favorite vs. Oklahoma, how to watch
According to FanDuel, Tennessee opened up as a 6.5 point favorite in this one. The total was set at 47.5 points.
If you want to bet the moneyline, Tennessee was listed as the -225 favorite while Oklahoma is at +184.
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Channel: ABC/ESPN+, Fubo TV (Streaming)
Location: Norman, OK
Tennessee is headlined by Iamaleava and Heupel said the Tennessee QB has performed well, and he’ll need to keep it up against Oklahoma.
“Well at this level you’re going to have to throw into some tight windows throughout the course of the season,” Heupel said. “We played good opponents, got good scheme and got good players. So being open at this level of play, you’ve gotta be able to place a ball accurately. That comes from your fundamentals and your eyes and the decision-making on where you’re going. And you’ve gotta be on the same page with the wide receivers. At the end of the day, he’d like to have a couple of those back, but it wasn’t just him, either.
“At the end of the day, the quarterback’s always got to make it right, but wide receiver and quarterback can be on page, one of them — protection’s gotta be a little bit better but he can also find the soft spot in it and like I said, at the end of the day, he’s got to make it right.”