We’re nearing the midway point of Tennessee Football’s regular-season slate with a home game against Arkansas this weekend in Neyland Stadium. But through the first five games, Tennessee has four wins and one loss. The Vols have wins over Syracuse and SEC foe Mississippi State, with an overtime loss against Georgia.
The second half of the schedule has a lot more meat on the bone, though. While Tennessee got out of September without a key second loss, the Vols will have a much more challenging path to get to the end of the season. Tennessee has home games against Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt, with road games at Alabama and Florida. The only break amongst the SEC slate is a November homecoming game against New Mexico State in Knoxville.
With the volatility that college football – and the SEC- has seen through the first six weeks, projections are all over the map from a College Football Playoffs perspective. There are obvious standouts, such as Ohio State, Miami, and Oregon, but the back half of the bracket and the SEC champion pick are widely contested.
On Monday, we saw two playoff projections/rankings that featured Tennessee taking on SEC rivals in the first round. ESPN’s Heather Dinich tagged Tennessee to play at Alabama, while CBS Sports’ Bud Elliot had the Vols penned for a first-round game at Georgia.
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We’ll close down the Week 6 slate with some of the other bowl projections that have popped up in the media landscape.
Neither of ESPN’s postseason analysts, Mark Schlabach and Kyle Bonagura, is slotting the Vols in with a playoff spot just yet. Schlabach did say that he considered Tennessee, along with Missouri and Georgia Tech, for the 11-seed slot that eventually went to LSU. Both Dinich and Elliott’s projections had Tennessee sneaking in as the 11-seed.
Instead, Schlabach has Tennessee heading back to Orlando, FL, for the second time in three years. He’s got Tennessee tagged to take on recent national champion Michigan in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Eve. Tennessee previously clobbered Iowa in the Citrus Bowl to close down the 2023 football season.
Bonagura, on the other hand, has Tennessee picked to go to the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Friday, Jan. 2, for a matchup with NC State. That potential matchup would be a fairly local game for both sides with it taking place in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tennessee pummeled NC State during the 2024 season, winning by a score of 51-10 in the same stadium. It would effectively be a same-stadium rematch of last season’s beatdown, just with a bevy of new faces on both sides.
USA Today’s Erick Smith has Tennessee taking on a different ACC opponent. He’s got the Vols squaring off against Virginia in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 27 in Jacksonville, FL. The Cavaliers are one of the surprising teams around college football this year, with two big overtime wins against Florida State and Louisville in the last two weeks.
Based on multiple projections around the media, Tennessee looks to be one of those fringe teams for the playoffs through the first six weeks. But the Vols have several chances to make an impact on the bracket, though. Tennessee will need to handle business against Arkansas at home this week before a crucial road game at Alabama on the third Saturday of October.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for more Tennessee football season coverage.
