Tennessee football: 5 reasonable goals for Vols 2018 season

3. Sweep Vanderbilt and Kentucky

Tennessee football lost to both teams last year, and they’ve lost to the Vanderbilt Commodores a shocking four of the last six seasons. Sorry, but that is unacceptable by any standard on Rocky Top, especially when two of those losses came to a Vandy team that finished with a losing record.

This should not be a goal, it should be a given. But with the Kentucky Wildcats coming off two straight bowl appearances and Vanderbilt hoping to make its second bowl in three years, we are at another area where we have to reset the Vols’ expectations this year.

So resetting them is beating both of these teams. Doing that will at least allow the Vols to get back to a point where they can make it clear that they are the top-dog in this three-way so-called “rivalry,” at least on the football side. It’s one thing to get a scare from one of these teams each year. But it should be a given to always beat them, as they did every year from 1985 through 2004 and from 2006 to 2010.

Even in bad seasons, Vanderbilt and Kentucky should be sure wins. And don’t try to sell the fact that the programs are better. That’s a complete lie. In 1999, Vanderbilt went 5-6 while Kentucky went to its second straight bowl game under Tim Couch. Phillip Fulmer’s last team, which went 5-7, still managed to beat Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and both of those teams made bowl games.

See a trend here? Tennessee football just beats Vanderbilt and Kentucky. That’s in the scripture of college football, and Jeremy Pruitt needs to get the Vols back to that. As a result, it’s a major goal for the 2018 season.