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Almost every trend points to Tennessee heading into the rivalry series with Kentucky

Kentucky and Tennessee play in one of the longest-running series in college football. The two SEC programs will meet on the gridiron for the 120th time on Saturday night in Knoxville. In a series once called the “Battle for the Barrel,” we saw one team dominate the rivalry.

Tennessee has won 84 of the previous meetings and once posted a 26-game winning streak in this series from 1985 to 2010. Kentucky finally ended the losing streak in 2011, but has only beaten Tennessee twice in the 12 meetings since then. The Vols own this series in more ways than one.

Many of the against-the-spread (ATS) trends point Tennessee's way into this Week 10 matchup, where Kentucky is a 16.5-point underdog.

  • Tennessee is the home favorite at 20-0 overall and 14-6 ATS under Josh Heupel
  • Tennessee is 25-7 ATS in the series over the last three decades
  • Josh Heupel is 3-0 overall and 3-0 ATS against Kentucky
  • Mark Stoops is 2-9 overall and 1-9-1 ATS against Tennessee

Kentucky has won at Neyland Stadium just once since beating the Vols in 1984, and that came during the COVID-19 season. This happened to be the only time Kentucky reported in this series. Since that win, Tennessee is 11-2 in one-score games against Kentucky.

Literally everything in this series leans toward the Big Orange.

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