East Tennessee State (1-0) vs Tennessee (1-0)
September 6, 2025 at 03:30 PM EDT
The Line: Betting Odds: Tennessee — Over/Under: 0.0001
The East Tennessee State Buccaneers and the Tennessee Volunteers meet Saturday in college football action from Neyland Stadium. Here’s an East Tennessee State vs Tennessee prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best East Tennessee State vs Tennessee pick. We will examine:
The East Tennessee State Buccaneers recent form and player performance
The Tennessee Volunteers recent form and player performance
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the East Tennessee State Buccaneers
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Tennessee Volunteers
Recent betting trends in games played between East Tennessee State and Tennessee
A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the East Tennessee State vs Tennessee game
East Tennessee State posted a pretty solid overall run record-wise last year. The Buccaneers went 7-5 in total with a 5-3 result in the Southern Conference. ETSU would finish behind only Mercer, Western Carolina and Chattanooga with that result. East Tennessee State had a nice 4-1 stretch of games in the middle of the season, but never ended up winning more than two consecutive outings.
This year the Buccaneers opened up their season with a matchup versus Murray State. East Tennessee State posted points in every quarter during that game (including double-digits in the first three quarters) in a 45-17 blowout win. QB Cade McNamara finished 12-of-17 for 146 yards, one TD and one pick. Leading the rush was Devontae Houston with 14 totes for 128 yards and two scores. Tops in receiving was Jeremiah Harrison with three catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. Khalil Eichelberger chipped in a couple of rush scores as well.
Over on the Tennessee side, they did pretty well themselves in 2024—especially among a difficult conference. The Volunteers finished at 10-3 overall and 6-2 in a tough Southeastern Conference. Tennessee landed in third place with that effort, behind only Texas and Georgia. With the No. 9 seed in the 12-team bracket of the College Football Playoff, the Volunteers took a 42-17 blowout loss to Ohio State, who would eventually become national champions.
This year Tennessee kicked things off versus Syracuse in their opener. The Volunteers jumped out to a 17-0 lead after the first half, then kept the pace from there in a 45-26 victory. Joey Aguilar went 16-of-28 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. Star Thomas rushed 12 times for 92 yards to lead the attack on the ground, while Braylon Staley had four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.
I’ll likely take a stab on the Buccaneers here. That said, I’m probably not going near it. East Tennessee State didn’t have much issue with Murray State in their opening game, eventually logging five rushing touchdowns. It was a great display of offensive prowess with 572 total yards—392 of those coming via the run. Granted, Murray State isn’t the toughest of opponents and the Volunteers will serve as an obviously big uptick in talent. That said, if the Bucs can find some room on the ground again I think they’ll be able to keep relative pace with Tennessee.
Speaking of Tennessee, they gave up 377 total yards (274 passing) and 24 first downs to Syracuse last weekend but also held the Orange to just 5-of-14 on third-down tries and had a couple of takeaways. On offense the Vols collected 493 yards, with 246 of those coming on the ground in a pretty nice running display of their own. Tennessee was pretty good on third downs as well (7-of-12), so East Tennessee State will really need to focus on stopping drives if they want to be able to hang around. In the end I think they will, but you can make a case either way.
The East Tennessee State Buccaneers recent form and player performance
The Tennessee Volunteers recent form and player performance
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the East Tennessee State Buccaneers
Recent betting trends and streaks involving the Tennessee Volunteers
Recent betting trends in games played between East Tennessee State and Tennessee
A summary that ties it all together and produces a favorable betting outcome for the East Tennessee State vs Tennessee game
East Tennessee State Buccaneers Betting Preview
East Tennessee State posted a pretty solid overall run record-wise last year. The Buccaneers went 7-5 in total with a 5-3 result in the Southern Conference. ETSU would finish behind only Mercer, Western Carolina and Chattanooga with that result. East Tennessee State had a nice 4-1 stretch of games in the middle of the season, but never ended up winning more than two consecutive outings.
This year the Buccaneers opened up their season with a matchup versus Murray State. East Tennessee State posted points in every quarter during that game (including double-digits in the first three quarters) in a 45-17 blowout win. QB Cade McNamara finished 12-of-17 for 146 yards, one TD and one pick. Leading the rush was Devontae Houston with 14 totes for 128 yards and two scores. Tops in receiving was Jeremiah Harrison with three catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. Khalil Eichelberger chipped in a couple of rush scores as well.
Tennessee Volunteers Betting Preview
Over on the Tennessee side, they did pretty well themselves in 2024—especially among a difficult conference. The Volunteers finished at 10-3 overall and 6-2 in a tough Southeastern Conference. Tennessee landed in third place with that effort, behind only Texas and Georgia. With the No. 9 seed in the 12-team bracket of the College Football Playoff, the Volunteers took a 42-17 blowout loss to Ohio State, who would eventually become national champions.
This year Tennessee kicked things off versus Syracuse in their opener. The Volunteers jumped out to a 17-0 lead after the first half, then kept the pace from there in a 45-26 victory. Joey Aguilar went 16-of-28 for 247 yards and three touchdowns. Star Thomas rushed 12 times for 92 yards to lead the attack on the ground, while Braylon Staley had four catches for 95 yards and a touchdown.
East Tennessee State vs Tennessee Prediction
I’ll likely take a stab on the Buccaneers here. That said, I’m probably not going near it. East Tennessee State didn’t have much issue with Murray State in their opening game, eventually logging five rushing touchdowns. It was a great display of offensive prowess with 572 total yards—392 of those coming via the run. Granted, Murray State isn’t the toughest of opponents and the Volunteers will serve as an obviously big uptick in talent. That said, if the Bucs can find some room on the ground again I think they’ll be able to keep relative pace with Tennessee.
Speaking of Tennessee, they gave up 377 total yards (274 passing) and 24 first downs to Syracuse last weekend but also held the Orange to just 5-of-14 on third-down tries and had a couple of takeaways. On offense the Vols collected 493 yards, with 246 of those coming on the ground in a pretty nice running display of their own. Tennessee was pretty good on third downs as well (7-of-12), so East Tennessee State will really need to focus on stopping drives if they want to be able to hang around. In the end I think they will, but you can make a case either way.