Tennessee vs. Illinois: Music City Bowl Showdown Preview

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00:00Tennessee and Illinois, big-time conference football going toe-to-toe.

00:04The look-ahead line had Tennessee close to a touchdown favorite, Joe.

00:07Today, I'm seeing a minus two-and-a-half and a total of 61-and-a-half.

00:12This is the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl,

00:16where the expectations for the weather are 35 degrees.

00:19Congratulations, bowling here.

00:21Go with Tennessee and Illinois, Joe.

00:22What is your spread line, though, huh?

00:25Well, I think Illinois, it won't bother Illinois very much,

00:28those kind of temperatures, but Tennessee, listen,

00:31they've had opt-out after opt-out here, Donnie.

00:34Their leading receiver, Chris Brazel II, is gone.

00:37He's actually heading to the NFL Draft Combine.

00:41They won't have any of the backup wide receivers.

00:44Three of the best defensive players on the team are also not playing in this one.

00:50So, you know, Josh Heupel, the good thing about a Tennessee team in the SEC

00:54is, you know, Josh Heupel has a group of players that were behind them

00:59that are going to be competitive.

01:00We just saw this with LSU, right?

01:02I mean, listen, it is the SEC.

01:04They still have a lot of quality players that are going to be auditioning for jobs next year.

01:08So, Illinois doesn't exactly go unscathed.

01:12They, too, are going to have a few starters on both sides of the ball not available.

01:16But the market believes that, yeah, the opt-outs for Tennessee,

01:20way more valuable than anything Illinois is bringing to the table.

01:23I don't see how you can look at anything but the over in this game.

01:27We've seen these two teams be able to put up some points

01:29and the defenses not be as good.

01:32So, to me, I think the only way to look at it is expect Tennessee

01:35and a Josh Heupel team as well as Illinois to put some points on the board in this game.