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

3. Vols fourth win as an underdog

Here’s an interesting stat for you: Tennessee football is 4-3 in the SEC, but they have been underdogs in all seven SEC games. How often has that ever happened? Now yes, they lost two games at home to Group of Five program when they were favorites earlier in the season. That reset all expectations.

But if we just judged games by the spread, UT would be 3-7 this year and would have gone 3-9 last year. Jeremy Pruitt has outplayed Vegas lines ever since arriving in Knoxville, and the Vols were once again underdogs heading into Columbia over the weekend. Despite them coming off the bye, we already detailed the elements as to why they should have been underdogs.

Still, they beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs by 10 as underdogs, the South Carolina Gamecocks by 20 as underdogs and the Kentucky Wildcats on the road as underdogs. Since their 1-4 start, they are now 5-1 overall, but they are also 6-0 against the spread. UT has become a great bet for anybody into sports gambling.

If the Vols cover against the Vanderbilt Commodores, they may have had the best run in SEC history against the spread. What’s clear, though, is they had to once again win a game in which the national audience was sure they would lose. And continuing to do that is worthy of lots of praise. It’s definitely another mental obstacle UT had to overcome, even if they have been overcoming it.