Virginia Tech: Frank Beamer led the Hokies form 1987 until the 2015 season, which ended with a 55-52 Independence Bowl victory over Tulsa. He left as the winningest active coach at the FBS level and as the sixth winningest coach in history of the FBS. He led Va. Tech to a bowl berth in each of his final 23 seasons. New head coach Justin Fuente has a big pair of shoes to fill but kept DC Bud Foster around so the Tech defense remains the same. Tech opened with a 36-13 win over Liberty but the Hokies were hardly dominate, leading just 17-13 until scoring a TD with 24 seconds left in the second quarter to take an 11-point lead at the half. Losing four fumbles to the FCS foe is not the way to open a new era. "We need to get better at all three phases of the game," Fuentes said. "By and large, we tried to be intelligent with the football. Obviously, we made some mistakes but we were able to overcome them and win the game."

Tennessee: The Vols opened the 2016 season ranked 9th in the AP preseason poll but needed OT (and some fortunate bounces) to escape 20-13 (OT) against Appalachian State. Tennessee actually trailed its SBC opponent 13-3 at the half, before pulling out the win and understandably dropped to 17th in Tuesday's new poll. "Everyone in our program has to have a tremendous sense of urgency to make the progress that's necessary from Game One to Game Two," Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said. "Had an opportunity to watch a lot of football over the course of the weekend, and I know everybody strives for perfection, but it's far and few in between from it happening. That's why it's the first game. There are no preseason games so you find out a lot about your football team. We're still building our identity, but I thought there was a lot of things to really build upon from last Thursday night."

The pick: The Hokies and Vols meet Saturday night before an expected crowd of 150,000 at Bristol Motor Speedway, in what is being billed as "The Battle at Bristol." The Volunteers enter on a seven-game winning streak (the school's longest since 2001) but the offense needs to improve on its 319-yard effort vs. Appalachian State. QB Dobbs is one of two quarterbacks in a Power Five conference that passed for 2,000 yards and rushed for 600 last season (Clemson's Deshaun Watson is the other), so expect a huge bounce-back game from him and his teammates. As for Tech, while the Hokies are best-known for their defense, the Vols defensive unit will be the best one on the field and the opening week results keep this number manageable. The Voils are an 8* play.