Nick Saban reveals who he is picking for Oklahoma vs. Tennessee

No. 18 Oklahoma vs. No. 14 Tennessee will essentially be an elimination game, with it having all of the playoff implications in being a matchup between a pair of two-loss teams on Saturday night. Now, Nick Saban has given his prediction as to who he thinks will likely win that one this weekend.

Saban previewed the game between the Sooners and the Volunteers while on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Friday. He’s leaning towards Tennessee, as, beyond the home-field advantage they’ll have, he thinks the Vols are more capable of winning the game as he sees it playing out, which would be in a shootout.

“I really like Tennessee in this game,” Saban said. “I mean, they have one of the leading offensive teams in the country when it comes to scoring points. They’re difficult to defend. They’ve got a good offensive line. They can run the ball. And, Oklahoma has got a great defense, one of the best in the country, but I think, when you spread them out like this, it’s going to be more difficult for them, especially playing on the road.

“And, you know, to me, the issue for Oklahoma is, are they going to be able to score enough points in this game? Because they’ve been struggling on offense a little bit since, you know, John Mateer came back from, you know, breaking his hand, which is, you know, I mean, it’s understandable. You know, the guy is playing hurt and he’s playing quarterback. It’s harder to spin it. But, if he plays well, they’ll have a chance.”

If this game got into a shootout, Tennessee would have to feel fairly good about its chances, even against one of the better defensive units in the country with OU, playing at home in Knoxville. That’s with the Volunteers having a top three offense in the nation overall, which is scoring 45.6 points per game and posting 510.1 yards per game of total offense.

It’s also because, over the last three games, Oklahoma has not been the same team on offense, in large part thought to be due to the status of Mateer. The Sooners have gone from 31.3 points and 430.3 yards per game over their first four games, undefeated over that start at 4-0, to averaging just 19.3 points and 312 yards per game over their last three, being 1-2 in that span, since his return from hand surgery.

Multiple people, including the quarterback himself, have said it’s not his thumb leading to this play. But now, heading into Neyland Stadium, OU will need more than that on the scoreboard, regardless of its offensive woes, in order to avoid dropping three of four.

Based on all of that, Saban just doesn’t think this one sets up well for Oklahoma. He would, based on the scoring output between the two, pick Tennessee as the team to keep their playoff hopes more alive after tomorrow night with a win.

“I just think Tennessee is going to be hard to beat, relative to the points that they score,” Saban said. “But Tennessee struggles on defense too, so they’re going to have to outscore them.”