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Tennessee football picked by expert to finish sixth in East for 2021

By Caleb Calhoun

Sep 15, 2018; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view during the second half of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and UTEP Miners at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 24 to 0. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 15, 2018; Knoxville, TN, USA; General view during the second half of the game between the Tennessee Volunteers and UTEP Miners at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 24 to 0. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /
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There are two teams in the SEC East, the South Carolina Gamecocks and Vanderbilt Commodores, that Tennessee football beat on the road last year, finished ahead of in the standings and, like the Vols, are also undergoing coaching changes. Given those facts and the fact that they both will play in Knoxville in 2021, most analysts have picked UT at least ahead of them.

Well, one expert doesn’t see it that way. In his projected SEC standings, Phil Steele actually has Rocky Top finishing sixth in the East this year. While he does have them finishing ahead of Vandy, he has them finishing behind USC.

What’s even crazier about this is the fact that Tennessee football’s coaching hire, Josh Heupel, is even more proven the South Carolina’s. After all, Heupel has been a head coach for three years. This is Shane Beamer’s first job in that capacity, and he’s never even been an offensive or a defensive coordinator.

This comes on the heels of Steele naming UT as the team he’s most concerned about in SEC play, which we wrote about here. Steele cited the usual issues: Last year’s 3-7 record, the coaching change, the NCAA investigation and the high number of players who entered the transfer portal.

To be fair, that final one is the best case to make for Rocky Top to be behind a team like South Carolina. The Vols have lost a ton of talent, and while they have added a lot, Steele is right to be concerned about building chemistry with so much new talent and a new scheme on both sides of the ball. All of that makes sense.

In the past, Steele has had a decent read on the Vols. One of his most famous predictions ever goes back to 2005, when everybody had UT in the top three nationally, and Steele only had them finishing third in the East. Obviously, he was proven much more right, as the Vols stumbled to a 5-6 season that year.

Next. Ranking Vols position groups by spring practice play. dark

We still don’t know what will happen this season, but Tennessee football does indeed have a tough road ahead. Still, the goal should be to finish ahead of both South Carolina and Vanderbilt in the East. If the Vols can’t do that, the season will be a failure.

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