Saturday is all about the team in orange and white. The Vols are clearly better across the board at every position than the 0-2 Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. Tech has issues at quarterback and have struggled to run the ball.

They had less tan 150 yards of total offense in a shut out loss to Furman last week.

So this is all about Josh Heupel’s team this week. Tennessee must be aggressive, play their full system and play a lot of guys. The Vols are hitting a stretch of 7 straight SEC games next week, you better know who you can trust to help you and who you can’t because this is the last week to really experiment and look at different personnel groupings. This team, this staff must take full advantage of it.

Tennessee 56 Tennessee Tech 3

Tennessee has to find balance of keeping guys growing and building momentum and getting younger players the much needed reps to build depth. Tennessee is going to get Jeremiah Crawford plenty of run in Saturday. I also believe we see lots of Lenneth Whitehead on the offensive side.

Defensively I think Tennessee is going to play a lot of players in the back and they have seen little to no action the first couple of weeks. Rodney Garner and his group already play a fairly large number so that won’t be much of a change but linebacker and the secondary is different.

I’m not going to waste a bunch of time on this pick…Tennessee Rolls.

Vols 55 Tennessee Tech 0

This is a lay down game for Tennessee and it comes at a great time on the schedule. Some guys—Cooper Mays, Jabari Small, Joe Milton—need to get healthy before the SEC grind arrives and you get one last chance to play some young guys and try and determine who has a chance to help you going forward.

The fact is the Vols will be able to name the score in this one and that says more about Tennessee Tech than it does about Tennessee. Through two weeks they don’t look overmatched in this one simply because they’re an FCS squad playing an SEC team, they look overmatched because they’re a bad FCS team.

Fans and the media alike will probably make too much of whatever happens at the quarterback position on Saturday but this one will be over early.

The only question about the final score is how much of a gentleman Heupel feels like being in the second half.

Tennessee 59, Tennessee Tech 7

There's nothing to decide between when it comes to picking this football game. Rather, the conversation at hand is about whether we think Tennessee will handle its business the way it's supposed to.

I believe Tennessee's defense will do so. Aside from one quarter in the first two games, Tim Banks' defense has looked better than I anticipated. It easily took care of business against a Bowling Green offense that is much better than this Tennessee Tech offense, so I don't expect to see the Golden Eagles reach the checkerboards.

Offensively, I don't know what to expect. UT will put up points, but how many? Josh Heupel's unit has committed the type of self-inflicted wounds that hurt you even against an FCS team, but is this the week they start to connect on the explosive plays?

Tennessee needs a game in which it puts up 60 or 70 on an opponent that it is paying to come to Neyland Stadium, but at the moment, I don't have confidence in the offense being consistent enough to do so. Still, expect plenty of fireworks against the Da'Rick Rodgers Golden Eagles.

Tennessee 52 Tennessee Tech 0

No disrespect intended – but let’s call it what it is. This Tennessee Tech team is bad, real bad right now. No way we’re talking about another FCS over FBS upset Saturday afternoon. This game is a glorified scrimmage for the Volunteers.

It’s a chance for Tennessee to empty the bench and get a look at everyone before it’s all said and done. Will that happen? I don’t know, but Tennessee can do that if they want. Josh Heupel and staff know what’s to come. Willie Martinez spoke this week on learning to trust younger players in order to get them more reps.

Here’s the platform.

Tennessee will obviously need to go in there and run its offense. It needs to run its complete offense and defense – maybe not every play in the book, but you know what I mean. This is the final turn-up prior to The Swamp and SEC play.

Will it be Hendon Hooker or Joe Milton moving forward? Could it be a combination of them both? Will Milton even be healthy enough to play? What combination on the offensive line works the best? Reps, reps, reps for those reserves tomorrow could pay dividends down the road.

The Golden Eagles return some solid defensive players from a unit that was second in the Ohio Valley Conference in team defense this past spring. It won’t matter. Offensively, transfer quarterback Davis Shanley is completing only 45 percent of his passes. That’s not great.

Vols win this one convincingly, but more importantly, need this final dress rehearsal for the daunting conference schedule that ensues.

Tennessee 60, Tennessee Tech 7