Last season, Tennessee football put together an 8-4 regular season with home losses to Georgia, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt and a loss on the road at Alabama. The result was an invite to the Music City Bowl against Illinois, in which the Vols lost in Nashville on a walk-off field goal.
However, star Tennessee running back DeSean Bishop doesn’t think UT was that far off from being back in the 12-team College Football Playoff. In a report from On3, he told the site that it was just a couple of plays that separated the Vols from a spot in the premier postseason event.
“It’s not too much, man,” Bishop said. “You look back at last year, and we’re maybe one or two plays away from the CFP.”
NEW: Tennessee RB DeSean Bishop tells @PeteNakos the Vols aren’t far from getting back to the College Football Playoff:
Advertisement“It’s not too much, man. You look back at last year, and we’re maybe one or two plays away from the CFP.”
Story: https://t.co/7aSzCGkiUQ pic.twitter.com/w6hWYRZxvk
— On3 (@On3) July 18, 2026
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Tennessee’s first loss of the 2025 season was a heart-breaker. Truly one play away from victory, the Vols had Georgia down to a 4th-and-6 from the Tennessee 28, up a touchdown. However, Gunner Stockton connected with London Humphreys for a touchdown on the play to keep the game alive. Then, Joey Aguilar led UT down the field and set up a 43-yard field goal. With the chance to win it, Max Gilbert missed to send the game to overtime, in which the Vols ultimately lost 44-41.
After stringing together some wins, Tennessee went to Alabama for the Third Saturday in October. The pivotal mistake in that game was a second-and-goal interception thrown by Aguilar that was returned for a touchdown with no time left heading into the half. If the Vols scored on the play, it would’ve made it 16-14 at the half. Instead, the lead ballooned to 23-7 and forced Tennessee to try to make up too much ground in the second half in the 37-20 loss.
A couple of weeks later, Tennessee hosted Oklahoma. The teams traded blows throughout the game, with the Vols leading in the third. However, Tennessee remained a step behind throughout the entire fourth quarter and couldn’t make up enough ground in the 33-27 loss.
To finish the year, Tennessee got hammered by Vanderbilt at home in a 45-24 loss. The Vols took a 21-14 lead midway through the second quarter, then allowed the Commodores to outscore them 31-3 the rest of the way.
