In the world of college football, everyone knows that Tennessee is a team ripe with young talent that should be competing for the SEC championship for years to come.
Sometimes it’s tough to differentiate how a team is viewed by those in college football, due to the sometimes conflated view of the media.
In the case of the Vols, however, it appears that they are viewed by their peers exactly as the media views them — a dangerous up-and-coming team.
Tennessee head coach Butch Jones alluded to that on Thursday during his weekly appearance on 104.5 the Zone in Nashville.
JONES: We have found that over the next 10 years when it comes to scheduling, no one wants to play Tennessee.
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) November 12, 2015
That is something that is both good and bad.
On one hand, it obviously means the Vols are well respected across the nation. That’s a great sign that Tennessee will indeed return to their former glory. Coaches notice what is going on in other programs and they know what success looks like. They clearly see that in Knoxville.
However, this can also make scheduling in the future very tricky.
Scheduling, as you know, is already a delicate landscape to navigate. If you’re going to compete for a national championship, you probably don’t want to schedule a power five conference team like Kansas or Wake Forest. A win over those teams doesn’t carry a lot of weight.
But then again, you’re probably not seeking out Baylor or Ohio State either.
In a perfect world, you’re scheduling a game that looks great on a resume, but one that you should also win.
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Perhaps an Iowa or Kansas State.
Unfortunately for a team like the Vols, who look like their poised to be a fixture in the top 15 over the next half-dozen years, there’s not a lot of benefit to those teams to schedule Tennessee.
They’re probably not going to be competing for a national championship. So why schedule Tennessee when you can go play South Carolina?
The risk, for those teams, just really isn’t worth it.
The Vols have power five opponents set for the next three years (Virginia Tech — 2016, Georgia Tech — 2017, West Virginia — 2018) and they also have a home-and-home with Pittsburgh in 2021/2022.
Tennessee is expecting to compete for national championships over the next ten years, so they need to be very careful with who they schedule. The Vols already play a tough conference schedule and one non-conference loss can ruin the entire season.
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UT shouldn’t be scared of anyone, but they also have to be smart.
Jones has done a good job of scheduling so far and I think that trend will continue in the coming years.