While Tennessee Football sat at home with a chance to rest up, the Vols got to enjoy the results of Week 5 and see all of them work in their favor. From teams they are about to play being locked in dogfights to their schedule strength improving, everything went exactly as they would want it.
Let’s start with their path to the College Football Playoff. The Vols’ schedule looked incredibly easy from the outset, to the point that 10-2 seemed like it could keep them out at the end of the year. Well, a few games last weekend significantly minimizes that possibility.
By holding on against the Auburn Tigers, the Oklahoma Sooners look like more of a quality win. For what it’s worth, Auburn falling apart under Hugh Freeze helps the Vols in recruiting too. Also, the N.C. State Wolfpack beat a Northern Illinois Huskies team that did beat the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, so UT’s two Power Five wins already look slightly better.
As far as their upcoming opponents, the Kentucky Wildcats now look like they could be a quality win for the Vols with the way they just beat the Ole Miss Rebels, despite that early-season loss they suffered to the South Carolina Gamecocks. Simply put, a 10-2 resume now would look better than it seemed just two days ago.
Part of that resume, of course, includes facing the two teams who faced off in the game of the weekend, the Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldogs. Look, regardless of what you saw in that game, UT was always going to have a better chance to beat Bama than UGA. The Dawgs are more talented, still, and that game is on the road while Bama is at home.
Luckily for Tennessee Football, the Alabama game is at home, and with the Tide playing the Vanderbilt Commodores and South Carolina Gamecocks next, this matchup almost assures they’ll be undefeated and No. 1 headed to Knoxville. That’s exactly what Josh Heupel’s team wanted.
Now, the game that the Vols have the better chance of winning against the two will be against the No. 1 team in the nation in all likelihood. It also could involve two undefeated teams, and depending on how other things go, it could actually be a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup. That’s down the road, though.
The path to Tennessee Football remaining undefeated for that matchup, though, just got easier as well. UT was set for what could be a difficult visit to the Arkansas Razorbacks next week in what will be a night game. Sam Pittman’s team is 3-2 but should be 5-0.
Well, by losing a tough one to the Texas A&M Aggies, the Hogs could be demoralized. Add in the fact that such a fight keeps them from being rested while the Vols are coming off a bye, and they have a much bigger advantage in this face-off than initially anticipated.
Any one of these things would be a bit minuscule in nature, but when you add them all together, Tennessee Football fans picked up a ton of mini-wins during the bye. Of course, what they do always depended on them to begin with, but this was a great weekend for Vol Nation.
