Tennessee Football returns to action this weekend with a home game against SEC foe Arkansas in Knoxville. The Vols will welcome in the Razorbacks and interim head coach Bobby Petrino as they prepare for the Saturday afternoon game from Neyland Stadium.
Before the bye week, Tennessee went to Starkville, MS, and found an overtime win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. It wasn’t pretty, but it was gritty. And, most importantly, it helped Tennessee fend off a disastrous second loss before October. That keeps Tennessee’s playoff door alive and open as the Vols look ahead to a four-game SEC slate before their next bye week.
The SEC has been like an unpredictable thunderstorm this year. No one team looks to be in complete control of things, but there does look to be a good handful of contenders that’ll be competing for a playoff spot in the back half of the season. The parity this season makes things awfully hard to predict, but hey, this is college football. This is where predictions thrive.
As we head into Week 7 of the college football season, two specific College Football Playoff projections have Tennessee taking on fierce SEC rivals in first-round action.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich has been projecting the College Football Playoff’s Top 12 after each week of the season. Tennessee has been typically viewed favorably because of an opening-season win over Syracuse and a quality loss to Georgia. Dinich still believes that Tennessee would be in the CFB’s Top 12 rankings heading into Week 7. The ESPN analyst has 11-seed Tennessee taking on 6-seed Alabama in the first round. It would be the Vols’ second game in Tuscaloosa this season alone.
“Entering Week 6, ESPN’s FPI projected the Vols will win each of their remaining games except the Oct. 18 trip to Alabama,” Dinich writes. “If that were to hold true, the Vols would have a strong case to return to the playoff at 10-2 but wouldn’t be a lock. What if Notre Dame finishes 10-2? They’d both have good losses, but the Vols might win the résumé battle. Eye test will matter, too.”
SEC teams in Dinich’s projection include 4-seed Texas A&M, 5-seed Ole Miss, 6-seed Alabama, 8-seed Georgia, and 11-seed Tennessee.
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The SEC rival trend for Tennessee continues with CBS Sports’ Bud Elliott, who released his latest college football playoff prediction on Sunday afternoon. Elliot similarly has Tennessee in the 11-seed slot, but instead has the Vols taking on SEC rival Georgia in a rematch of its Week 3 overtime thriller from Knoxville. Both Dinich and Elliot’s projections have Tennessee in the path of 3-seed Oregon if it should get past its SEC rival in the first round.
SEC teams in Elliott’s projection include 5-seed Alabama, 6-seed Georgia, 7-seed Ole Miss, 9-seed Texas A&M, 10-seed Oklahoma, and 11-seed Tennessee.
Georgia beat Tennessee in a heavyweight slugfest in the third week of the regular season at Neyland Stadium. The Vols jumped out to an early lead, but Georgia came storming back in the middle two quarters of the game. Tennessee had a chance to win the game in regulation but was forced into overtime after a Max Gilbert field goal miss with three seconds on the clock. Georgia wound up winning in the first portion of bonus time.
As previously mentioned, projections feel like they hold very little stock in the volatile version of the Southeastern Conference football that we’re getting this season. Still, though, Tennessee has a path into a second-straight shot at the playoffs. The Vols will have to play well in the second half of the season, with key games such as vs Arkansas, at Alabama, vs Oklahoma, at Florida, and vs Vanderbilt.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee Football coverage throughout the season.
