The Tennessee Volunteersâ bowl destination was revealed on Sunday afternoon, and the Vols will be returning to Nashville and the Music City Bowl to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini on December 30 at 5:30 pm ET.
And for those wondering how the oddsmakers see the game, well, relatively close, but in Tennesseeâs favor. Per FanDuel Sportsbook, the Vols opened up as a 6.5-point favorite over the Illini. The game is expected to be high scoring as well, with an over/under total of 61.5.
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Of course, we donât know yet who will play, and who will opt out for the NFL Draft and the transfer portal. That will matter significantly, and decisions and announcements regarding departures will shape the game and shift the line over the coming days.
Illinois comes in at 8-4, and as far as how theyâve been playing lately, they have wins in 3 of their last 5 games. They notched wins over Northwestern, Maryland, and Rutgers with good defensive showings, keeping all three under 14 points. But they also dropped three-score losses at Washington (42-25) and at Wisconsin (27-10), the latter of which is particularly gross.
The Illiniâs best win this season came in a 34-32 win over USC at home on a walk-off field goal. They also won 45-19 at Duke early in the year. But Illinois got their teeth kicked in 63-10 by Indiana and lost 34-16 to Ohio State at home.
So, this appears to be a decent team who has beaten most of the teams they should but got whooped by some teams that were better than them. Sound familiar?
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The Illini are led by QB Luke Altmyer, who came in with the anticipation of being one of the best QBs in the Big Ten this year. He hasnât been bad, throwing for 2888 yards with 21 TDs and 5 INTs. That means he takes obviously care of the ball pretty well. The Illiniâs top rusher is CaâLil Valentine, whoâs totaled 549 yards on 123 attempts with 4 scores. Their top pass catcher by a wide margin is WR Hank Beatty with 64 catches for 826 yards and 3 scores.
Weâll see who ultimately suits up and who doesnât â both for the Illini and Vols â but for now, the Vols are seen as the early favorite with three-plus weeks to go.
