Tennessee Football is ranked No. 19 in the ESPN Football Power Index, which released its projections for every Volunteers game Thursday.
For Tennessee football, the 2017 season is set to look a lot like the 2016 season despite many key losses. At least, that’s what ESPN’s FPI projects for the Vols.
The FPI projections for the Vols were released on Thursday. Right now, their model predicts Tennessee winning just under eight games, 7.9 to be exact.
So essentially, it rounds up to a projected 8-4 record.
But their predictions for each game on an individual basis tells a different story. Tennessee football is projected to win nine of its games individually this year, with the Florida Gators, Alabama Crimson Tide and LSU Tigers the only teams projected to beat them.
More from Vols Football
- How to Win a GUARANTEED $200 Bonus Betting Just $5 on the Vols vs. Florida!
- Tennessee Football at Florida: Five Keys to a Vols Victory
- Week 3 SEC Power Rankings: Did Tennessee Football’s Win Help At All?
- Week 3 AP Polls: Why Did Tennessee Football Drop in the Polls?
- Tennessee Football: Top Five Performers in 30-13 Win vs. Austin Peay
However, with just barely above a 50 percent chance to beat the Georgia Bulldogs and between a 60 percent and 70 percent chance to beat the Kentucky Wildcats, Missouri Tigers, and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, it appears the FPI is projecting that one of their projected wins for the Vols is likely to be off.
Right now, they have just under a three and a half percent chance of winning the conference. And while they have a 37.9 percent chance of beating Florida and a 40.5 percent chance of beating LSU, they only have a 13 and a half percent chance of beating Alabama.
The good news with this is that the FPI missed the mark on the Vols last year. They were a Top 5 program and under-achieved overall then.
Maybe this time, they will over-achieve. However, it looks like the only sure wins for them are Indiana State, UMASS, Southern Miss, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina.
And it’s hard to see why they have such a high percentage against the Commodores and Gamecocks, 81 and 75 percent respectively, since they lost to both last year.