Tennessee makes the short trip down the road to Nashville this week as they take on the Fighting Illini of Illinois for the Liberty Mutual Music City Bowl on Tuesday. 

Marking the fourth time that the Volunteers have played in the Music City Bowl, they look to even out their 1-2 record in the bowl game. 

The Vols will also face off with Illinois for the first time in program history. 

Playing in the competitive Big Ten conference, the Bret Bielema led Fighting Illini finished the regular season with a record of 8-4 and look forward to the challenge of facing an SEC opponent on the bowl stage. 

“Super excited about this opportunity,” Bielema said of the matchup. “Obvously the challenge of playing Tennessee and the explosive offense they are… it’s a really fun experience.”

Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel previewed the matchup with Bielema and Illinois saying,

“[We] get a chance to go out and play a really good opponent in Illinois. I got great respect for coach Bielema and what he's done at Illinois, but really throughout his entire coaching career… looking forward to going out and competing with our guys tomorrow at Nissan Stadium,” Heupel said.

A diminished Tennessee defense vs Illinois’ offense. 

This is more than just a head-to-head battle. Everything that was proven during the regular season has been turned upside down for the bowl. Tennessee's leading tackler (LB Arion Carter), top pass rusher (DE Joshua Joseph) and best cover corner (Colton Hood) opted out.

On the other side of the coin, the Illini will be missing the anchor of their offensive line, first-team All-Big Ten tackle J.C. Davis.

Bowl games come down to a matter of "want to." Whichever team happens to play with a fire and intensity will have the edge.

On paper, Tennessee is the better team in this game. Add in the home state location of this matchup, and the Vols should have more than enough support to secure a Music City Bowl victory.  

However, this Vols bowl team will look quite different from the team that played weeks ago in Knoxville. With a weakened defense led by an interim defensive coordinator, Heupel will rely on his offense to win this game. If running back DeSean Bishop can continue to produce at a high clip on Tuesday, I like the Volunteers odds of hoisting the Music City trophy. 

Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer has the opportunity to join the ranks of several SEC quarterbacks like Diego Pavia of Vanderbilt and Ty SImpson of Alabama to pick apart a lackluster Tennessee defense. Facing an even more depleted Volunteers group who will play without several defenders who opted out of the Music City Bowl, the experienced Altmyer can will his team to a victory if he stays protected and composed through four quarters.