Vols on road vs. powerful Oklahoma

NORMAN, Okla. — To some, Tennessee’s 2014 football season might appear to parallel the beginning of the 2013 campaign.

Last year, Tennessee started 2-0 with home wins over Austin Peay and Western Kentucky, then hit the road to play No. 2 Oregon and took a 59-14 pounding.

This year, the Vols are 2-0 again, with wins against more formidable but still small-conference foes in Utah State and Arkansas State, and they again go on the road to face a top-five opponent in No. 4 Oklahoma (2-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday (WATN Channel 24).

Keeping with the parallel between 2013 and 2014 would mean Tennessee would endure another road blowout and set itself on course for another sub-. 500 season. The Vols, though, have seen evidence that this start is different.

Though nearly half the members of the travel roster will be making their first college trip, the youth is talented and the veteran leadership appears steady.

“The depth at all positions,” junior wide receiver Alton “Pig” Howard said Monday when asked about the biggest difference between this team and last year’s team. “I think the chemistry and everything in general is way bigger and better. I think all the way around, everyone’s playing better as a unit.”

That may be true, but Oklahoma appears capable of accomplishing at least as much as that Oregon team that finished 11-2 a season ago.

Tennessee coach Butch Jones said that in Oklahoma, he sees a team with “no deficiencies.”

“This is a top-level football team,” Jones said, “and a toplevel football program.”

Offensively, the Sooners have been balanced, averaging 508 yards per game, with 286 passing and 222 rushing.

Quarterback Trevor Knight, the MVP in the Sooners’ upset of Alabama in last season’s Sugar Bowl, has thrown for 552 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for a score. The Sooners also have a massive offensive line that Jones points out is “bigger than the Green Bay Packers.”

“They run the ball, they have tempo, they’re big up front, they have big backs, they have good wideouts, they have a good quarterback,” Tennessee defensive coordinator John Jancek said. “Do you want me to keep going?”

The Sooners’ defense may be more dominant than their offense. Twenty of the 23 points Oklahoma surrendered in its first two games came in the second half, when it had leads of at least 31 points.