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Tennessee football: Ranking games on 2021 schedule by difficulty

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 09: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a touchdown during the game against the Indiana State Sycamores at Neyland Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 09: The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate a touchdown during the game against the Indiana State Sycamores at Neyland Stadium on September 9, 2017 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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KNOXVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 29: A general view of Neyland Stadium during the South Carolina Gamecocks game against the Tennessee Volunteers on October 29, 2011 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

10. Vanderbilt Commodores

Saturday, Nov. 27; Neyland Stadium; Knoxville, Tenn.

Normally, even the worst SEC team isn’t as bad as the worst Group of Five teams Tennessee football is playing in a given year. That’s not the case for the Vanderbilt Commodores heading into 2021. Despite what has happened in this series in recent years, the Vols should have no problem dismantling this team.

Vandy is going to be historically bad. After seven years of Derek Mason, the ‘Dores are moving on and have new head coach Clark Lea, a graduate from the school who spent the past three years as defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Lea is actually probably a good hire long-term, but it’s not going to make any difference this year.

Last year, this team went 0-9 with only three games that were within three scores. The team got worse as the year went on and looked like it had quit on the season by the end. The truth is COVID and opt-outs left the team severely limited when it came to scholarship players.

Now, those players are almost all back this year, but it’ll take them time to get acclimated to the program again, especially with a new coach. Although it’ll be better than the team the Vols dominated 42-17 last year in Nashville, the last game of the season for Rocky Top is still almost a certain win, especially given that it’s in Knoxville this year.

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