Tennessee football: Best to worst case scenarios for Vols 2019 season

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 5: The Tennessee Volunteers mascot Smokey runs through the end zone after a score against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 5, 2013 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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A range of expectations exist for Tennessee football in 2019. Here are the best to worst case scenarios for the Volunteers in Jeremy Pruitt’s second year.

Back in the day, Tennessee football would set its expectations for winning the SEC East, and the baseline would be finishing in the top 25. With the exception of a couple of Butch Jones years, though, that has not been the case for the Vols in recent seasons.

And it’s not the case for the Vols this year. Coming off back to back losing seasons is already enough to limit those expectations. However, coming off last year’s 5-7 campaign in which six losses were by 25 or more points only limits them further.

This year, Tennessee football is just trying to get back to a level it once was in Jeremy Pruitt’s second season. But what is that level, and what is a realistic set of accomplishments for the Vols in 2019?

That’s what we’re going to break down in this post. Expectations for every school changes every year given the state of the program, and that’s no different for UT. As a result, we are here to break down the realistic best and worst case scenarios on Rocky Top this year.

The season was broken up into four realistic scenarios when we analyzed it all. Each scenario doesn’t mean the exact same record. It just looks at the highest and lowest realistic barometers for the program and everything in between.

It’s safe to say that for this year, a national championship or even SEC championship is the highest barometer for the Vols. But we can also say that a 2-10 season, or even 3-9 season like they were projected to have last year, is highly unlikely.

There is still a wide range, however, of what can happen. So let’s go ahead an break down what to expect from the Vols this year. These are are best to worst case scenarios for Tennessee football entering the 2019 season.