Tennessee football’s SEC slate looks a lot tougher after Week 1

We already knew Tennessee football would have an SEC schedule that leans on the tougher side. That’s the nature of the game right now since the Vols are the only team guaranteed to play the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs every year.

However, while both teams, Georgia most significantly with how they blew out the Oregon Ducks, look even better than their elite status suggested, lesser SEC teams on the Vols’ schedule look elite too. It’s a concerning sign for Josh Heupel’s second year.

Ahead of the season, there was an off-chance Tennessee football could start the year 5-0, as the three Power Five foes in their first five games are all undergoing some transition. Given the way their first Power Five foe, the Pittsburgh Panthers, just struggled with the West Virginia Mountaineers, those chances seemed to increase.

Saturday’s and Sunday’s slate of games changed that, though. The Vols had reason to be encouraged that their other two Power Five opponents, the Florida Gators and LSU Tigers, were undergoing coaching changes. Both look more concerning now.

Florida’s is obvious. They were part of an epic SEC Saturday, as they beat the Utah Utes 29-26, and Anthony Richardson looks more dangerous than ever. Billy Napier appears to be the real deal early on, and UT hasn’t beaten a first-year Florida head coach since Steve Spurrier in 1990.

Now, LSU was the only SEC team to lose this past weekend, falling to the Florida State Seminoles in its first game under Brian Kelly. However, anybody who watched that game could tell that LSU was actually the better team, and that doesn’t bode well for UT long-term.

Yes, LSU was lucky to recover a fumble and drive 99 yards because Mike Norvell inexplicably called a toss on the goal-line with the game in hand. That doesn’t outweigh the ways they gave the game away with all of their special teams miscues, though.

The Tigers fumbled away two punts, had a field goal blocked and had an extra point blocked as they lost 24-23. Their offense showed it can move the ball, especially late, so if they can clean up those special teams issues, they should be a lot more dangerous.

Add in the fact that Tennessee football doesn’t face them until Week 6 and that the game is in Death Valley, not technically a neutral site (although New Orleans is questionably), and LSU could be much tougher. Simply put, the Vols may lose their stability advantage by then.

To be fair, the flip side of this is how the Kentucky Wildcats and South Carolina Gamecocks struggled in their openers to a certain degree, and the Vanderbilt Commodores struggling with the Elon Phoenix is another sign of encouragement for UT. That outweighs how Vandy blew out the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors in Week 0.

On the other hand, though, the Missouri Tigers blew out the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, so they could look a lot tougher for Tennessee football too. What’s really clear, though, is that the first five games look a lot tougher for the Vols, and that could derail the hype behind Josh Heupel’s second season on the job.