College Football News has its predictions out for the Tennessee football Volunteers.
It looks like Jeremy Pruitt has another prediction to overcome if he wants to improve Tennessee football in his third year. As many people on Rocky Top fear could happen despite the Vols’ improvements, College Football News projects the program to repeat its 2019 campaign.
The longtime website covering FBS projected the Vols to go 7-5 in its predictions for every 2021 game among SEC East teams. It also named UT three players on its preseason All-SEC Team: offensive linemen Trey Smith and Wanya Morris and place kicker Brent Cimaglia.
A 7-5 record is exactly what the ESPN FPI has for Tennessee football as well. It’s not that the Vols aren’t expected to be much better. They just happen to have a much tougher schedule this year, and they lose some key players, which raises lots of concerns beyond them returning a ton of talent and having a top 10 recruiting class.
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Surprisingly, Rocky Top is projected to beat the Florida Gators at home in the College Football News preseason predictions. However, the Vols are also projected to lose to the South Carolina Gamecocks on the road, which the FPI also projects, and they are shockingly projected by CFN to lose to the Arkansas Razorbacks on the road.
With the agreement among both that they will lose to the Oklahoma Sooners, Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs along with South Carolina, switching Arkansas and Florida is how both sites get a 7-5 record. CFN has the Vols finishing fourth in the East with a 4-4 SEC record, behind Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.
If the early part of the Vols’ schedule goes as the website projects, however, fans will be a lot more excited and thinking far beyond 7-5. That’s because, due to their predicted upset of Florida, they would be 4-1 heading into their showdown with South Carolina, which will be in Columbia, S.C.
South Carolina, Alabama and Arkansas would all be part of a three-game losing streak. The site does project Tennessee football to beat the Missouri Tigers, Kentucky Wildcats and Vanderbilt Commodores. Kentucky could be another tough game based on the FPI projections. But the simple fact is that CFN has the Vols getting to that 7-5 record in an unconventional way.