The Tennessee Vols homestretch of the 2024 football regular season has arrived. As noted in last week’s column, November was once a reasonably calm period on the Tennessee Football schedule. Taking a look at the last five games coming up for the Vols, times have definitely changed. Let’s take a look at each game.
Kentucky
Long time SEC and border rival Kentucky Wildcats come calling this Saturday night for a christened Dark Mode game against the Vols. Based on the records of both teams coming into this matchup, it looks like a complete mismatch. Kentucky is staggering into Knoxville with a 3-5 record and on an ugly 3-game losing streak. Tennessee on the other hand is coming off back to back wins over Florida and Alabama, a rare accomplishment over the past 25 years. But look a little closer at the Cats record and you see a 13-12 last possession home loss against UGA and a very impressive 20-17 win in Oxford against Ole Miss whose only other loss was in a Baton Rouge night game against LSU. Kentucky may be reeling with their current losing streak but Vols better not sleep walk into Neyland Saturday night against this bunch of Cats who have shown they are capable of knocking off a SEC team that looks like a mismatch on paper. We all painfully remember how the Vols looked coming off their last bye week at Arkansas.
Mississippi State
Yes, this is a SEC game that in the Mike Leach era would be a definite scary matchup with his air raid offense. But sadly, Mike Leach is no longer with us and this team doesn’t resemble a Mike Leach coached team. Mississippi State’s highpoint this year has been staying within 10 points of UGA in Athens. Otherwise, it has been a long 1-7 season for the Bulldogs. Look for UTEP to stay as close or closer to Vols later in November.
Georgia
Don’t really have to build this game up beyond where the two 7-1 Top 10 teams currently stand. UGA almost lost very ugly to Alabama before mounting a furious comeback that resulted in a respectable 41-34 SEC road decision. The Dawgs got everybody’s attention by going into Austin and completely throttling the then #1 ranked Longhorns 30-15. I’d have a lot more confidence in the Vols if this matchup was in Neyland Stadium. Unfortunately, just like 2022, this year’s game is played in Sanford Stadium. So far this season, the Vols have looked suspect in SEC road contests. The Arkansas loss now looks worse after the Hogs were routed in Fayetteville by LSU. I don’t count the Vols out of this game but the defense will have to play their best game of the season and the Tennessee passing attack will absolutely have to show up and give the running game some help. This game could very well determine if the Vols make the CFP this season.
UTEP
As noted above, look for the 1-7 UTEP Miners to possibly make as good of a game out of this matchup as Mississippi State. Why? The game is sandwiched in between the road trip to Athens and the regular season ending road trip to this season’s national surprise team, Vanderbilt Commodores. Make no doubt about it, UTEP gets a prime trap game slot on Tennessee’s schedule. It doesn’t matter, Vols will handle UTEP but very possibly will not beat the Miners by as much as most fans would’ve expected when they saw this game on Tennessee’s 2024 schedule.
Vanderbilt
Good grief, did you see how close Vandy came to beating Texas last Saturday? Do you have any idea how much it would mean to that program to knock off Tennessee in the last regular season game and carry the goal posts down to the Cumberland River one more time? The only game this season that 5-3 Vandy has looked like college football fans expect them to was in a 36-32 loss to 2-5 Georgia State. Otherwise, I don’t recognize this Vandy football team other than it reminds me too much of the James Franklin coached teams of 2012-13 seasons. As a reminder, those teams went 9-4 both seasons that included wins over Tennessee. Tennessee has a lot of work to do before they board the buses to Dudley Field but make no doubt, this is a scary season ending matchup for Tennessee based on where both teams are at this point in the season.
So as the ol’ saying goes, it’s one game at a time. First up, Kentucky this Saturday night in Dark Mode Neyland Stadium.
