Seldom will you find Michigan fanatic Dave Portnoy taking any pleasure from an Ohio State victory, but Saturday’s blowout win over Tennessee was one of those rare cases. The Volunteers were routed 42-17 by the Buckeyes in Columbus, trailing 21-0 at the half and never looking competitive against Ryan Day’s team. The meeting of the No.
8 and No. 10 seeds at Ohio State promised to be one of the competitive matches of the opening weekend of the 12-team College Football Playoff, but it played out in near-identical fashion to the other three first-round matchups with the underdog Vols no match for the Buckeyes. Tennessee’s hopes before the game were boosted by a massive traveling contingent from down south, with an estimated 30,000 fans making the journey to Columbus.
The team’s iconic Rocky Top fight song could be heard loudly from the stands, but hopes of a Tennessee takeover were quickly crushed, and media mogul Portnoy did not waste the opportunity to poke fun at the Volunteers. “All in all Vols fans bragging about their Columbus takeover for 48 hours straight only to be treated like Kent State is pretty funny,” the Barstool Sports founder posted on X. Portnoy’s fans were eager to join in on the trolling.
One wrote: “This is nothing short of a catastrophic meltdown for Vols fans! They marched into Columbus with all the swagger, all the noise—acting like they were invincible, like conquering heroes! For 48 straight hours, they bragged, they flexed, they planted.