Tennessee has just two games remaining on the 2025 regular season schedule, but they are massive games to say the least. The Vols will travel to Gainesville for a night matchup against Florida in The Swamp this Saturday and will host in-state rival Vanderbilt in the season finale from Knoxville the following weekend.
The Vols’ playoff chances are dead, but these two rivalry games stand in between Tennessee finishing the season with a 7-5, 8-4, or 9-3 record.
Tennessee’s 42-9 win over New Mexico State on Saturday boosted the Vols up the AP Poll by one spot to No. 20 in the rankings. While we won’t find out the Vols’ College Football Playoff ranking until Tuesday night, Tennessee also moved up two spots to No. 20 in ESPN’s weekly power rankings.
“Tennessee rolled to a 42-9 win over New Mexico State on Saturday; the Volunteers averaged 6.3 yards per carry with a nicely balanced 219 passing yards and 194 rushing yards,” ESPN’s Bill Connelly wrote.
The ESPN ranking also came with a note on where Tennessee still needs to improve in the final month of the season.
“But the Vols did give up 313 passing yards, which didn’t alleviate doubts about the defense,” Connelly continued on to write. “It picked off two passes, made seven tackles for loss and forced four turnovers on downs, but defense has been a major issue all season, and this game only alleviated that concern so much. Beating Florida and especially Vanderbilt to finish the season will require more stops than the Vols tend to make.”
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Tennessee’s defense has improved these last two games, but the Vols are still sitting at No. 14 in the SEC in terms of total defense. The Vols will need to see continued improvement on that side of the ball for the final two games for two vastly different reasons.
Florida’s offense, for instance, has largely been in turmoil throughout the season. While the Gators did put up 24 points in a loss to Ole Miss last weekend, Tennessee can’t help out an already struggling unit by allowing it to find uncommon success, such as it did against Kentucky.
Vanderbilt, meanwhile, has had a sharp offense behind the play of Diego Pavia. In a game that already projects to be a shootout with the league’s top two scoring offenses, Tennessee’s defense will need to help out its offense with some key stops throughout the game.
The Florida Gators will host No. 20 Tennessee at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC this Saturday night in The Swamp. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Football coverage.
Check out ESPN’s full Week 13 Power Rankings list here.
One Response
The Vols need to get rid of the MEH, Heupel. The Vols will never reach a championship with that lug head.