Tennessee football: Can Hendon Hooker impact the playoff race?

The goal for any team is to be in the College Football Playoff race. Although such expectations may be too high for Tennessee football this year, the possibilities surrounding the program mean they could still be a factor in the event come November.

As we have already mentioned, they actually could find themselves to be a contender in the early rankings. Beyond just being a contender, though, the Vols have the talent and personnel to affect what other teams do, specifically at quarterback.

Bill Connelly of ESPN named Tennessee football’s signal-caller, Hendon Hooker, one of the 25 most important players in this year’s CFP race. He named Hooker a “spoiler quarterback.” Here’s what he wrote about the graduate senior.

"If you buy into Tennessee’s borderline top-10 SP+ projections, you could view Hooker and the Vols as longshot title contenders. But if that proves a bridge too far — and it probably should — there’s still nothing saying they can’t be a great spoiler. Tennessee should have one of the best offenses in the country, and Hooker is the perfect pilot, combining accurate passing (68% completion rate) with big-play potential (14.3 yards per completion) and a strong presence in the run game (6.1 yards per non-sack carry).The Vols topped 40 points in seven of his 11 starts last year and could be even more dangerous this time around."

By any stretch, this makes sense. How many times have we seen teams eliminated from the national championship race because of an upset loss by a solid but lesser team when the quarterback on that team played out of his mind? Upsets like that happen contenders all the time.

Most notable among such games is 2012, when Johnny Manziel led the Texas A&M Aggies to a shocking upset at the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama got into the title game anyway that year, beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but it was only because the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes were on probation.

Given what he showed in just one year playing for Heupel, there’s a great chance Hooker does the same thing for Tennessee football. Now, that would involve the. possibility that UT upsets Alabama or the Georgia Bulldogs.

If the Vols win either of those games, though, then they may be more than a playoff spoiler. Look, they have a great chance to enter the Alabama game undefeated. Winning that game would put them on track for an 11-1 campaign should that happen.

However, even a loss, as mentioned would keep them in the CFP race into November when they visit Georgia. If they beat Georgia and Alabama is their only loss, they’ll easily be a top four team and firmly in the driver’s seat to play for the SEC Championship.

Simply put, if Hooker is good enough to play playoff spoiler, there is a succession of logical conclusions following that, and it ends with the Vols being in the College Football Playoff race themselves. The schedule just sets up in their favor.

Now, visits to the Pittsburgh Panthers and LSU Tigers along with home games against the Florida Gators are all tough outs. As a result, you can’t just pencil UT in as a CFP contender should they be able to upset one of those teams with Hooker.

Still, Tennessee football has a decided advantage in each of those games. Probabilities suggest that they will lose one to two of them, which makes Hooker being a playoff spoiler more likely, but there’s an outside chance they win all of them. In that scenario, Hooker becomes much more than just a potential spoiler.