Tennessee football: Five major obstacles Vols overcame in win at Missouri Tigers

In order to beat Mizzou 24-20, Tennessee football had to overcome lots of odds. Here are five things the Volunteers fought through in their victory.

Any team that started the season 0-2 with two home losses to Group of Five schools before having to navigate an SEC schedule would have to overcome a lot to reach bowl eligibility. Tennessee football is no different.

There will be plenty of stories written about how they started the year 0-2, 1-4 and even 2-5 before going on this four-game winning streak to get to 6-5. Johnny Majors always said they remember what you do in November, and Jeremy Pruitt’s second team is taking that to heart.

But they also overcame a lot in their win against the Missouri Tigers specifically to get to 6-5. When the season began, this road test was a fringe game for Tennessee football that we took to be a likely loss.

The idea was UT had three circled wins, their three non-conference games outside of the BYU Cougars, and three sure losses, which would be to the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama Crimson Tide. Toss-ups were the Vanderbilt Commodores, Kentucky Wildcats, South Carolina Gamecocks and Mississippi State Bulldogs.

However, BYU and Mizzou were on the fringe, with BYU being a likely win and Mizzou being a likely loss, just not sure. Still, beating Mizzou would’ve meant Rocky Top likely going  9-3. So doing it after their start is an amazing accomplishment.

Lots of factors went into the game itself as well. Again, if Mizzou was a fringe game, beating them would be an uphill climb. During this turnaround, UT’s wins have gotten more and more impressive, though. This was just another major step.

And that’s what we’re going to break down here. What was so improbable about this game? How did it manifest itself on Saturday? It’s time to analyze all of that. These are the five biggest obstacles Tennessee football overcame in their 24-20 win at the Missouri Tigers.