Tennessee football: Ranking every 2020 game by difficulty

8. Nov. 28 – at Vanderbilt Commodores

The final team in our bottom tier of games is the Vanderbilt Commodores, and they will be the toughest matchup of the bad teams for Tennessee football. Now, don’t forget that Vandy has won five of the last eight against UT and had won three straight before last year. To be fair, the Missouri Tigers have also won five of the last eight.

Anyway, UT faces Vanderbilt the same time it always does, and Derek Mason is no different than any other Vanderbilt coach. They alway find a way to get up for the Vols, regardless of the records or circumstances. This year, with a sure loss to the Georgia Bulldogs to end the season, Vanderbilt will put all its emphasis on the Nov. 28 showdown with its hated rival in Nashville.

When it comes to trap games, though, the Vols are in trouble. Of their most brutal games, which we’ll get to, the Florida Gators are one they hope to score an upset over, and UF is right after this one. Now, the good news is we have historical reference for this. UT faced Florida in December back in 2001, and the week before, they beat Vanderbilt 38-0.

However, that was a different program, one that was always in the top 10 or the top five. This year, Jeremy Pruitt’s team is just trying to prove it belongs. If the Vols are not careful, Vanderbilt will sneak up on them, and that could wreck anything they may have been in line to do up to that point. Altogether, though, this is a bad Vandy team, so UT should still win easily.