Week 0 is underway, and it’s time to project out exactly what Tennessee Football will do this year. Here are Caleb Calhoun’s and Dave Hooker’s game by game predictions for the Vols in 2023, including where both predict they will end up in the postseason this year.
Caleb Calhoun
Virginia – W
Austin Peay – W
Florida – W
UTSA – W
South Carolina – W
Texas A&M – W
Alabama – L
Kentucky – W
UConn – W
Missouri – W
Georgia – W
Vanderbilt – W
SEC Championship – L
Orange Bowl – W
Final record: 12-2
This is ambitious. Tennessee Football has won 12 games or more just once in history, during their 1998 national championship run. However, provided they beat everybody they face, they could certainly split their games between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs. UGA seems destined for a fall-off, and that game in Knoxville should help.
Should the Vols split and beat Georgia while taking care of business elsewhere, they’ll win the East with an 11-1 record. That means an SEC Championship game with a College Football Playoff berth on the line. Losing will knock them out to just a New Years Six bowl. With the Sugar Bowl a CFP bid, the highest SEC team not in the CFP is tied to the Orange Bowl, so UT returning there is a strong possibility.
Dave Hooker
Virginia – W
Austin Peay – W
Florida – W
UTSA – W
South Carolina – W
Texas A&M – W
Alabama – L
Kentucky – W
UConn – W
Missouri – W
Georgia – LI
Vanderbilt – W
College Football Playoff Semifinals – L
Final record: 10-3
Could a two-loss team reach the CFP? It’s honestly shocking such a thing hasn’t happened yet given the fact that the LSU Tigers reached the BCS national championship as a two-loss team back in 2007. Why not be the last year of a four-team playoff for it to finally happen another time? It’s certainly a possibility for Tennessee Football.
Nobody will hold it against the Vols for losing at Alabama, and Georgia is a juggernaut on another level from anybody else in the sport right now. It’s possible Alabama loses a couple of West games, maybe even three, at which point the Vols are the second highest SEC team. Then a playoff berth is very possible, and even losing that would be a successful season.
