The outlook among the college football landscape is that the SEC is the “big man on campus”. While the SEC may have the best pure talent in the country, we’ve seen the last few seasons where the other conferences gave the SEC a punch in the mouth. In this Outback Bowl matchup, the Tennessee Volunteers enter the game as the favorite but can Northwestern give the Vols a fight? We place this bowl game under the microscope and provide a breakdown.
Why Northwestern Will Win
The Wildcats have been known this season for having a stout, stingy defense that has willed the team to victory at times this season. The defense has held six opponents to ten points or less including Pac-12 champion Stanford. Northwestern is ninth in the nation in scoring defense, which is better than Big Ten title game participants: Michigan State and Iowa. LB Anthony Walker is one of the best linebackers in the Big Ten conference as he totaled 113 tackles, 18 TFLs, three sacks and an interception. Team leading sacker Deonte Gibson has been a handful at times. Gibson totaled 2.5 sacks at Michigan and three sacks at Wisconsin. What’s going to be interesting is the stout run defense by Northwestern is they are 17th in the nation in rushing defense allowing only 122 yards a game on the ground.
Outside of RB Justin Jackson, Northwestern is not known as a juggernaut on the offensive of the ball. Jackson closed out the regular season with four games of over 100 yards including 139 against the Badgers. The effectiveness of Jackson is very critical as QB Clayton Thorson has been a lackluster “game-manager” but he possesses skills to be a run threat so that is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
All for Tennessee
Why Tennessee May Win
An 8-4 season for Tennessee has been blanketed by the margin of defeat in their four losses. Losses to Oklahoma, Florida, Alabama, and Arkansas have been by a grand total of 17 points. So they are a play or two in each game from possibly being undefeated. The Vols have arguably the best RB that no one is talking about in Jalen Hurd. Hurd has been very effective this season with games such as 102 yards and two TDs vs. Florida, 106 and a score against Oklahoma, and a season high of 151 yards. He’s paced by former Alabama RB Alvin Kamara who averages 6.7 yards a carry.
When it comes to the Vols defense, CB Cameron Sutton is an excellent, shutdown corner who doesn’t get thrown at often and rightfully so. While Sutton is known for the coverage skills, his punt return ability is worth watching as well. Sutton has averaged 18.7 yards a return and two TDs. While Sutton gets the attention, you can argue that LB Jalen Reeves- Maybin is the best player on defense with his 99 tackles, 13 tackles for loss and five sacks. The Vols defense as a whole is sixth overall in opponent third down conversion as they have only allowed 29% conversions a game.
Who May Win
It’s going to be pretty evident that Tennessee has the better athletes. What may be evident as well is that I expect to see the defense stack defenders in the box and try to limit Jackson and make Northwestern one-dimensional. While Northwestern have good enough talent to keep the Wildcats in the game, if Jackson is bottled up often, it may take some special teams plays and/or trick plays to walk away with the victory. Vols QB Joshua Dobbs has been somewhat inconsistent so if Tennessee can squeeze some production from the running game, the Vols will be Outback Bowl champs.
Vols 23 Wildcats 16