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Tennessee football 2021-22 bowl game rooting guide: Vols’ path to top 25

By Caleb Calhoun

Smokey and the Volunteer celebrate a touchdown during a NCAA football game against Tennessee Tech at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.Kns Tennessee Tenn Tech Football
Smokey and the Volunteer celebrate a touchdown during a NCAA football game against Tennessee Tech at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.Kns Tennessee Tenn Tech Football /
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Dec 23, 2020; New Orleans, LA, USA; R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl field signage on the 50 yard line before the game between the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and the Georgia Southern Eagles at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 23, 2020; New Orleans, LA, USA; R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl field signage on the 50 yard line before the game between the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and the Georgia Southern Eagles at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports /

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (Saturday, Dec. 18)

Marshall Thundering Herd over Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns

Billy Napier has left the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns for the Florida Gators, where he will now give Tennessee football trouble in a different way. However, he leaves a team that is 12-1 and just won the Sun Belt, which is resulting in it getting lots of love over lots of teams.

Louisiana is No. 23 in the CFP, No. 16 in the AP Poll and No. 17 in the Coaches Poll. Given their record and their ranking, conventional wisdom would suggest that, like BYU, there’s no way they drop below the Vols, even if UT wins and they lose.

Well, we should ignore conventional wisdom with Sun Belt teams. Louisiana losing their bowl to an unranked team could very well fall below Rocky Top at 8-5. More importantly, the quality of their loss would kill them, as it would come against a 7-5 C-USA team.

The Marshall Thundering Herd are 7-5. Even if they won this game, which would be more of a quality win than UT beating Purdue, they won’t leapfrog the Vols. You don’t put 8-5 C-USA teams over 8-5 SEC teams, no matter what. Given that record, this could be a bad enough loss for Louisiana, though, that it should drop them below UT.

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