Syracuse vs Tennessee Picks, Predictions & Lines – College Football Week 1

• Tennessee is a 13.5-point favorite over Syracuse in CFB Week 1
• Both teams will look a lot different in 2025
• See below for my Syracuse vs Tennessee picks and the latest odds for August 30

Syracuse and Tennessee start their season with a neutral-site game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Kickoff is scheduled for noon ET on Saturday, August 30.

Both programs had 10-win seasons in 2024, but both went through a lot of changes heading into the season. Syracuse has a new quarterback in Steve Angeli, as Kyle McCord left for the NFL.

Tennessee had a lot of quarterback drama this offseason with Nico Iamaleava leaving the Volunteers for UCLA. App State transfer Joey Aguilar will be the starting quarterback for the Vols in 2025. They also lost running back Dylan Sampson to the NFL Draft.

This game has a lot of question marks, so it will be exciting to see how both of these teams play in their season opener.

Syracuse vs Tennessee Betting Line

Odds as of August 29 at DraftKings Sportsbook. Be sure to check out the best DraftKings promo code before betting on CFB Week 1.

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The college football odds list Tennessee as a 13.5-point favorite in this neutral-site game against Syracuse. Tennessee opened as a 12.5-point favorite before being bet to -13.5. With -550 moneyline odds, sportsbooks are giving the Volunteers an 84.62% chance to start their season 1-0.

The O/U has seen a lot of movement since the odds were released. The total opened at 56.5 and is now down to O/U 51.5.

Syracuse Betting Trends

Fran Brown is heading into his third season with the Orange, and Syracuse surprised a lot of people last year, going 10-3. They went 6-7 against the spread in 2024, and there was a lot of turnover heading into this season, however.

They are going from Kyle McCord to Steve Angeli. Angeli transferred from Notre Dame and won the starting gig. The question is now who he will throw the ball to. Syracuse lost their top three receivers and their starting running back.

Angeli has not shown much in college, but he did play well on one drive in the CFP Semifinal against Penn State. Syracuse does like to push the tempo, so it will be interesting to see if that plays into what Angeli wants to do.

Syracuse allowed just under 30 points per game last season and allowed five yards per carry. They will need to improve on that in 2025, especially if their offense takes a little bit of time to get going.

Tennessee Betting Trends

Nico is out. Joey Aguilar is in. That is a big change for Tennessee, who went 10-3 striaght up and 7-6 against the spread last season.

Aguilar comes in from Tennessee, and while he does not have the same talent as Nico, he will not have to do it all in this offense. Tennessee was led by their defense last season, not Nico, and outside of James Pearce Jr. heading to the NFL, a lot of players are returning on the defensive side of the ball.

The loss of Dylan Sampson will hurt the Volunteers, but Dean Bishop is back, and he averaged over six yards per carry in limited work last season. Josh Heupel’s system is great for quarterbacks, so I trust that the offense will still be productive.

Syracuse vs Tennessee Prediction

This is the game that I am most excited for this weekend. It is not because I think it will be the closest of the weekend, but because both of these teams have a lot of question marks, and we will learn a lot about both of these programs. Can Fran Brown keep building on the success he has built at Syracuse? How will Tennessee’s offense play without Nico? We will find out Saturday afternoon.

I am predicting Tennessee to win this game comfortably and cover the spread. I believe the Volunteers will control the line of scrimmage and have no problem running the ball successfully against a weak Syracuse defense. This will allow Aguilar to get comfortable and make the throws needed to win the game. I trust Heupel as a coach and believe he will get the most out of Aguilar.

For Syracuse, it will be difficult for them to score as many points as they did last year with Angeli. The offense averaged 34.1 points per game in 2024. If they are able to get back to that level this season, it will be later in the year, after Angeli gels with his new receiving corps and when they are not facing a defense of Tennessee’s caliber.

I believe the Orange will have a tough time scoring on Tennessee’s veteran and deep defense. With Tennessee finding success on the ground and their strong defense, I think this will be lower scoring than most people think, so I like the under in this game as well.

Syracuse vs Tennessee Picks:

• Tennessee -13.5 (-112)
• Under 51.5 (-105)