It's always difficult to repeat as a national champion. And the Georgia Bulldogs have come to a bit of a roadblock that they will have to overcome.

We are not sure how many BetOnline customers expected that this would come from the Tennessee Volunteers, but Josh Heupel's team has shown a lot of progress since last season, and they engaged in a real thriller in defeating Alabama 52-49, which has led to them achieving the top ranking in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.

Those rankings are important, because they determine who is going to wind up playing for this year's national championship. Georgia is currently third in those rankings, and will most likely move up to the top position if they can win on Saturday. The kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern time between the hedges in Athens.

Last season these teams met, and Georgia came away with a 41-17 victory as a 19.5 -point favorite. Tennessee had a very difficult time stopping Georgia's running game, which piled up 274 yards. But Tennessee had its moments. Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman hooked up ten times for 200 yards, and now Tillman, who's been injured, is back in the lineup. He's a very good one, but he's not even the best wide receiver on this team. That's how explosive Tennessee is right now.

Georgia has not necessarily been challenged all that much in the schedule since their season opener, a 49-3 victory over Oregon. But all indications are that this is an extremely formidable defense and a more competent quarterback than last year. Stetson Bennett has averaged 8.8 yards per attempt with 67.5% accuracy, and has more yards than Hooker does at the moment.

In the college football betting odds that have been posted on this game by the folks at BetOnline, Georgia is a solid favorite at home.

Georgia Bulldogs -9.5 (-112)
Tennessee Volunteers +9.5 (-108)

Over 65 points -109
Under 65 points -111

if you're familiar with Tennessee at all, you'll know that they run what can best be described as a "fast break" offense. They take very little time between snaps, and they have come into their own this season. In games against FBS teams, they are first in the nation in points, at 47.1 per game. And Hooker is a favorite for the Heisman Trophy.

Hooker has completed 71% of his passes for 10.7 yards per attempt, and along with his 21 touchdown passes has thrown just one interception. He also gets the job done on the ground, with 338 rushing yards. Such a thing is not insignificant; Tennessee is great at mixing the run with the pass, and that's great for a fast-break offense. Between Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright, they've got well over 900 yards between them, and the Volunteers average just a shade under 200 per game.

And that's not the best part of the team, obviously. We have talked about Tillman, and his ability to dominate against this Georgia defense. But Tennessee has other players who are threats down the field. Bru McCoy averages 15 yards a catch, while Ramel Keyton averages more than 17. The guy who is going to be on the All-America team, however, is Jalin Hyatt, a speedster who has already set a school record with 14 touchdown catches. He's averaging 20.2 yards per reception, and has easily been the top receiver in the SEC. That's something different then we saw last season.

You can't sell Georgia's offense short, by any means. They have averaged 537.4 yards per game, which is best in the nation (vs. FBS opposition). And they have averaged 5.9 yards per rushing attempt, with 54.2% third down conversions. They have a number of running backs, including Daijun Edwards, who can make plays for them. And although the wide receiver group has undergone some criticism because of its lack of explosiveness, they do compensate for that with Brock Bowers, who can line up as a tight end, wideout or H-back, and is averaging 17.6 yards per catch. When they have Bowers and 6'7" Darnell Washington in the game, they have a very effective tight end combo.

Tennessee ranks 123th in the nation in passing yards allowed. So we're not going to expect that they will put the clamps on Georgia as the Bulldogs try to move down the field. However, let's consider that Georgia has not been able to get a real consistent pass rush going, with just ten sacks on the season.

So Hooker will have time to throw. This team is by no means an unproven quantity, and if you watched the game against Alabama, you would know that.

Great offense can more often than not beat great defense at this level, especially iof they haven't seen an offense of this caliber. We think that's the case here. We are not necessarily making an argument for Tennessee to win the game, but we certainly consider the possibility that we're going to have an offensive donnybrook. So we're going over the total of 65 points, and we'll see another thriller.

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