Tennessee is taking on West Virginia in Charlotte, N.C. this Saturday, and there’s been a bit of back-and-forth already between the two teams over — wait for it — depth charts. Both head coaches, Jeremy Pruitt and Dana Holgorsen, released them early on in game week.
West Virginia’s depth chart got Tennessee fans mad, meaning FOOTBALL IS BACK, folks
Only in college football!
Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Note the ORs listed next to a good chunk of West Virginia’s names. There are a couple ORs on WVU’s defense depth chart, too. On a depth chart that’s released to the media, putting “or” next to names is basically a convenient way to keep who you’re starting a secret:
WVU Football
The reasoning for the abundance of ORs? Holgorsen said it was Tennessee, which released its depth chart on Monday, that started it:
It would appear that Tennessee did in fact OR WVU first:
As one would expect, Holgorsen’s comments got some Tennessee fans fired up on Twitter. Here’s just a sampling of what is out there:
After WVU’s depth chart was released, Holgerson was asked about the reaction from Vol fans on Twitter. He downplayed everything, for the most part:
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen beefs about depth charts.
In 2016, Colorado made fun of Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, who is known for not revealing starters or depth charts often, by releasing a fake depth chart. Throughout the 2017 season, Harbaugh never even released a full team roster. Then, Michigan hilariously released one full of former players as a joke at the end of that season. And former Texas A&M head coach Dennis Franchione resigned in 2007 after it became public that he was leaking depth charts weekly to Aggie boosters who paid $1,200 a year for the information.
Saturday will mark the first-ever time these two schools, which lie 400 miles apart from each other, meet.
Although WVU is expected to be a legitimate contender inside the Big 12, whereas Tennessee isn’t in the SEC, oddsmakers think this one will be close — per OddsShark, WVU is just a seven-point favorite against the Vols.
We’ll keep you posted if anything more comes from #depthchartbeef.
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