This weekend my Ohio University Bobcats take a trip to Neyland Stadium to take on the Tennessee Volunteers. UT is a talented team, and outside of Appalachian State earlier this year, has a history of blowing out its non-conference foes. However, amongst the checkered orange here are 3 reasons why a pocket of green may be celebrating before the sun sets on the Tennessee hills this Saturday.

Frank the Tank

Ohio University and Frank “Give me a beer and a Power Five conference opponent on the road” Solich consistently play up to tough competition. Already this year OU went to Kansas and walked away with a blowout win. Granted, if the kids from Last Chance U rode into Lawrence and were given 7.5 points I would probably roll the dice on them too, but either way, beating Kansas was still a Big XII road win by a MAC team.

In 2015, Ohio lost 27-24 on the road on a last minute TD drive to a Minnesota Golden Gophers team that was better than their record reflected; 5 of their 7 losses came against teams ranked in the top 16 when they faced off. In 2012 in arguably biggest win of the Solich era in Athens, OU headed east to Happy Valley for an emotional game for the Penn State program. It was the first game of the year, the first at Beaver Stadium, less than a month and a half after heavy sanctions were rightfully levied against the Nittany Lions, and the Bobcats walked out with a win. This team and this coach are not afraid to play in storied stadiums and is a confident group coming into UT.

Run, Forest (Green) Run

On the more quantitative side of the ledger, Tennessee has a hard time stopping the run and OU loves to hammer it between the hashes. Last week UT gave up 186 rush yards in a game in which they were up 10 at half and 14 entering the 4th, and Virginia Tech had to throw to play catch-up. Not to mention, a week prior UT gave up 184 yards to Appalachian State.

So far this year the Bobcats have rushed for 566 yards on 108 carries, including 329 last week at Kansas on 57 attempts in which they had two 100 yard rushers, including Senior QB Greg Windham. In a game where UT wants to get off a fast start, the longer the Bobcats can keep the clock moving with the ball in their hands the better chance they have to pull off the upset.

Between a Hokie Stone and a Hard Place

Finally, the obvious point: this is a quintessential trap game sandwiched between a big Tennessee win and the start of conference play. The Volunteers played in front of 150,000 fans at Bristol Motor Speedway last Saturday against Virginia Tech and won handily. But they clearly looked past Appalachian State in Week 1 and almost became the Mountaineers’ next Michigan. Next week they host the Florida Gators as the SEC schedule kicks off. The boys from Athens come into Knoxville this weekend, and it’s the Athens in the MAC, not the SEC. If Tennessee sees OU as another App State we have a ballgame.

Frank’s got his power 5 opponent, someone get the man a beer, grab one yourself, and let’s see what happens. GO BOBCATS!