Athlon picks Tennessee football to finish third in SEC East

Behind the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators are the the Tennessee football Volunteers.

This isn’t going to be an uncommon spot for Tennessee football over the next few months. As forecasts for the Vols’ 2020 season continue to come in, Athlon Magazine predicted Rocky Top to come in third in the SEC East in its Southeastern Conference predictions Wednesday.

The magazine had Florida winning the East and Georgia coming in second with the Kentucky Wildcats at fourth, the South Carolina Gamecocks at fifth, the Missouri Tigers at sixth and the Vanderbilt Commodores at seventh. Athlon’s pick to win the conference overall, though, was the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Behind Alabama in the West were the LSU Tigers at second, the Texas A&M Aggies at third, the Auburn Tigers at fourth, the Ole Miss Rebels at fifth, the Mississippi State Bulldogs at sixth and the Arkansas Razorbacks at sixth. Here’s a bit of what the outlet said about Tennessee football.

"The gap between Georgia and Florida to Tennessee is still significant, and Pruitt’s squad has a few obstacles to overcome in order to be a top-25 team. The schedule features games against Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia and Alabama – all projected to finish in Athlon’s top seven – and the offense needs more consistency out of quarterback Jarrett Guarantano to improve a unit that averaged only 24.2 points a game last fall."

For the most part, this is an accurate take. Everybody is aware of the consistency issues in the passing game with Jarrett Guarantano, and it’s also true that the schedule is much tougher this year than it was last year. Experience is the big advantage for this year’s team.

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In addition to picking the Vols to finish third in the East, Mark Ross listed Jeremy Pruitt as an SEC coach on the rise. That was the only individual recognition anybody from UT got on the outlet’s preview page for the league.

There was some respect for multiple units on the team, as four different ones were listed in the top half of the SEC. The Vols had the No. 7 ranked defensive line, linebackers and secondary, and they had the No. 3 ranked offensive line behind Alabama and Kentucky.

If Cade Mays gets the green light to play, there’s a chance Pruitt’s team has the best offensive line in the league with Mays, Brandon Kennedy and Trey Smith in the middle, Wanya Morris and Darnell Wright on the outside, and Riley Locklear, Jerome Carvin and Jahmir Johnson all solid rotational players. But that depends on what happens with Mays.

Either way, Tennessee football will almost certainly be more talented this year than previous years. The question is if they can replace the significant production from the few players that did leave and if they can navigate a more brutal schedule. Those will be the tests for Pruitt’s third season on the job.