10. At Florida Gators
Saturday, Sept. 25; Ben Hill Griffin Stadium; Gainesville, Fla.
We’re back to circled losses, but these games are slightly less circled than the Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles games. Basically, rather than a 0 percent chance of the outcome going opposite what we expect, there’s a 0.00000000001 percent chance of it happening. Still, the Florida Gators are a circled loss for Tennessee football.
Despite this being a game, like the Alabama game, that Vol fans desperately want to win and a a rivalry they desperately want to restore, it’s not happening this year. UT has too many issues facing its team this year to be competitive with Dan Mullen’s program just yet.
Taking that into account, this is another game the Vols shouldn’t take seriously. In fact, the goal of September is that this will be the only loss, but it’s going to be a loss nonetheless. Other games, including the TTU game, need to somewhat be their focus.
Now, there is a glimmer of hope for UT here, which is that Florida is worse than it was last year given the departures of Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts. Also, they will be playing the Vols right after Alabama. Still, this isn’t a game UT should focus too heavily on. It’s going to be a loss no matter what, and there are other goals for this year.