Tennessee football cashed in on early schedule breaks. What’s next?

Success in life is often dictated by whether or not you cash in on lucky breaks. It’s the same for great teams and great programs in college football. That’s exactly what Tennessee football was able to do with its 5-0 start in Josh Heupel’s second season.

This start is actually not too surprising. We wrote last October, immediately after the Vols’ lost to the Ole Miss Rebels, that things were setting up for UT to have a strong start to 2022. That was the day after the LSU Tigers fired Ed Orgeron.

A month later, the struggling Florida Gators fired Dan Mullen, and that furthered our point. We wrote about it again. Facing two teams undergoing coaching changes, one off a bye, a team that lost its best players in the Pittsburgh Panthers and two Group of Five teams made a 5-0 start nearly a year in the making.

The question was if Tennessee football could cash in on it in Josh Heupel’s second year. With Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman deciding to come back at the end of last year, it became nearly an expectation. Well, the Vols have cashed in on those breaks.

As a result, they are in the top 10 with the Alabama Crimson Tide coming to town. This was exactly what they needed to do to start the year. Although they may not finish strong, this red-hot start does wonders for Heupel in recruiting and what could be in store for the future.

Now, what do they do with it? After all, you can cash in on breaks for a while, but eventually, you have to create your own breaks. That’s the position Rocky Top finds itself in after such a great start, and it’s the next test for them down the stretch.

Expectations have now moved to 10-2 for this team, but the Kentucky Wildcats and South Carolina Gamecocks won’t be any walk in the park. It’s highly possible they still stumble to an 8-4 record on the year if they aren’t careful.

Never forget 2016. Tennessee football cashed in on a bad Florida team and a Georgia Bulldogs team in its first year under Kirby Smart to get to 5-0. The Vols then lost three straight and stumbled to an 8-4 record, which led to an unraveling of Butch Jones.

There are tons of differences between this team and that team, but the principle still remains. The Vols are in a unique position now to really make Heupel the hottest coaching star in college football. They don’t have to win the East this year, but maintaining where they are at would do a lot going forward.

If they somehow beat Alabama Saturday, then they’ll actually have a bit of house money. Again, the key for a program on the rise is to take advantage of its breaks to do what it can in recruiting. Beating Alabama is not necessary for that.

At this point, 10 wins should be the baseline expectation for Tennessee football now, whether that’s 10-2 in the regular season or 10 wins with a bowl game. However, that’s just if they cash in on their breaks. Making a break would be shocking Alabama or the Georgia Bulldogs. Then we’ll really be talking.