If the national and regional media is correct about Tennessee’s football team, then it’s time to replace the signature Big Orange flag with a color that signals serious distress.
If the Vols finish seventh in the SEC, as predicted by the assembled SEC Media Days, then it’s time to raise a very red flag and question if coach Josh Heupel can be a championship coach. If the Vols aren’t even in the Top 25 as EA Sports ranked them for its college football game, then that’s big-time trouble.
Here’s the good news. I don’t think that will happen. Therefore, Tennessee fans shouldn’t fret.
Think about it. After a surprise season in which Tennessee went 11-2 in 2022, the Vols faltered a bit last season just when the media was on the team’s bandwagon, picking them second in the SEC East last season and fourth overall in championship votes. This just in. Reporters and columnists don’t like to be wrong. That surely swayed the vote this year. No one wants to get burned twice by the same team. Or three times if you count the Vols surprising season in 2022 in which Tennessee was picked approximately fifth in the SEC.
Looking at the teams picked ahead of Tennessee this season, it’s tough to see the Vols really finishing behind six SEC teams. In fact, other than Georgia the Vols won’t be a massive underdog to any other team on their schedule. Simply put, seventh would not be good enough this season.
Finishing seventh wouldn’t be good if the Vols hope to make the inaugural 12-team College football Playoff. A seventh-placed team in the SEC would certainly be out of the playoffs despite a respectable season. The seventh-place team in the SEC last season, LSU, finished No. 13 in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Again, that’s respectable, but not what the Vols are shooting for this season.
The good news for Tennessee fans is that the media voting in Dallas last week probably don’t know as much about the Vols’ quarterback situation as they need to in order to make an accurate prediction. The media got burned by former Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton last season. He was the talk of SEC Media Days in 2023 with his physical ability that he never lived up to. With that as a backdrop, reporters were asked to vote on a quarterback, redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava, that they had barely seen for a full game. Therefore, I don’t blame the media for being off base.
Iamaleava is, by all accounts, going to upgrade the Vols’ play at quarterback. That should benefit the entire team. Even Tennessee’s defense will benefit if the Vols are able to play with a lead as they often did in 2022.
That’s why I can’t see the Vols finishing seventh in the SEC. Sure, that could happen, but there would be cause for concern if so – enough to raise a red flag.
