Phil Steele Projects Vols To Make Bowl Game
By Zach Ragan
In order to keep the Tennessee faithful content in 2014, the Vols will have to make a bowl game.
That won’t be an easy thing to do, even with a top ten recruiting class in 2014.
UT will seek to replace their entire starting defensive and offensive lines this upcoming season. That could spell disaster for Tennessee in Butch Jones’ second season as head coach.
Another difficult 5-7 season could be on the horizon. It has to get worse before it gets better — right?
Not necessarily true, at least according to highly respected college football analyst Phil Steele.
Steele recently released his bowl projections for this upcoming season and he believes the Vols will be one of 11 SEC teams participating in post-season play.
According to Steele, the Vols will play Memphis in the Birmingham Bowl.
This is consistent with Sporting News’ recent bowl projection (they projected UT to play East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl).
Any bowl game for the Vols, who haven’t played in a post-season game since Derek Dooley’s first season in town, will make 2014 a success.
Vol fans should temper their expectations in 2014. Tennessee is still a couple of years away from being able to consistently compete at the level that UT fans are accustomed to seeing.
Butch Jones will get the Volunteers back to the summit, but it won’t be without a few growing pains.