Week 13: Tennessee at Florida
Get your popcorn ready for Tennessee vs. Florida in the second to last game of the season. The Swamp will be buzzing, as the Gators are going to want to stick it to their big-time rivals. All eyes are going to be on DJ Lagway too, as there's plenty of hype on him following his freshman campaign.
Lagway is being viewed as one of the best quarterbacks in the SEC leading up to Week 1 getting here. That's exciting for the Florida fanbase, but not ideal news for defensive coordinator Tim Banks for Tennessee. Sadly, we're rocking with Florida to take down the Vols.
Prediction: Florida 23, Tennessee 17
Week 14: Tennessee vs. Vanderbilt in the season finale
Tennessee will be 7-4 leading up to the regular season finale against Vanderbilt. Diego Pavia is back with the Commodores, but he got a close-up look at the in-state rivalry last season with the Vols dominating Vandy and punching its ticket to the College Football Playoff.
While a trip to the CFP won't be on the line for Tennessee this time around, the Vols will still play with urgency and hope to take home bragging rights against the Commodores. Aguilar will record his third 300-yard passing game of the fall in a win.
Prediction: Tennessee 31, Vanderbilt 21
Predicting Tennessee to go 8-4 on the season without Nico Iamaleava
There you have it. While the Vols will record some fun wins on the season, our expectation is that losses against Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida and Georgia will be on the way. This will indeed mean the Vols won't get back to the College Football Playoff, which will be a disappointing end result.
This means a bit of a step back will be posted, but it won't come as a massive stunner, especially with the massive Iamaleava news arriving before spring ball wrapped up. Recently, 247Sports predicted UT to play in the Duke's Mayo Bowl. That sounds about right to us, though it'll be a disappointing bowl game after what everyone geared up for this past winter.