No. 21 Tennessee Has a Lot Left to Play for This Season
The Vols have two huge opportunities to end the 2025 season on a overwhelmingly positive note.
With three losses on the season, No. 21 Tennessee’s odds to make the College Football Playoff field this season are slim to none. Still, a lot of Vol Nation is curious how head football coach Josh Heupel’s team finishes the final three games, starting with Saturday afternoon’s ball game against New Mexico State.
Sure, it would be nice to still control your playoff CFP destiny when you travel to Gainesville in two weeks or host No. 13 Vanderbilt the week after that, but that shouldn’t negate how Vol fans or the Tennessee football program, for that matter, treat those final two contests.
With Florida, you have not been in a better position to win in The Swamp than this season in a very long time. I thought before the season that it could only help Tennessee for the game to be played in mid-November, the latest it’s been played, outside of the 2020 COVID season, since 2001, when it was played in December. The Vols won the game 34-32.
It’s interesting that Florida, not Alabama, has proven be the more challenging and frustrating rivalry game for the Vols in the Heupel era. The Vols, outside of this year, have played the Crimson Tide better than they have the Gators, particularly on the road. Florida has beaten Tennessee by an average of 18.5 in Heupel’s two previous trips to Gainesville – that number is 5.5 in Tennessee victories over Florida in Knoxville.
But Florida fired their head football coach a few weeks ago in Billy Napier. The Gators benched their five-star sophomore quarterback DJ Lagway in a blowout loss at Kentucky last weekend, and, as a result, might start a true freshman in Tramell Jones against the Vols when they arrive next Saturday. The Wilsons, Dallas & Eugene, two elite wideouts who happen to share the same last name, are lost for the season. The Gators will likely be riding a 3-game losing streak in the SEC when they play Tennessee next Saturday. Florida’s offense is 85th in Yards Per Play versus SEC competition this fall; it’s 115th in November. Everything that could have gone wrong for Florida seemingly has gone wrong.
Tennessee should beat Florida next Saturday.
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With the in-state rival Commodores, the roles are reversed from a season ago. Last fall, head football coach Clark Lea’s team had the opportunity to keep the Vols out of the CFP at home in the regular season finale. After jumping out to a 14-0 start, the Vols settled in behind a strong performance from Dont’e Thornton Jr. to beat the Commodores comfortably. This season, Vanderbilt, if they don’t get tripped up by Kentucky, will travel to Knoxville with a win-and-they-are-in opportunity. As odd as it is to write that the Vols can play spoiler to the Commodores’ CFP chances in Neyland Stadium, that’s exactly where things sit right now. If you look at that weekend’s slate, too, you won’t find many bigger games than Tennessee versus Vanderbilt. It very well may be another night game in Neyland.
Vanderbilt is averaging 30 points per game on the road this year, and it feels like the Vols will need to score at least 30 to beat Heisman Hopeful Diego Pavia’s team. Last season, Vanderbilt looked like they ran out of steam offensively down the stretch, but that’s not going to be the case when they come to Neyland the final weekend of the regular season. In a lot of ways, the game and atmosphere should feel like a playoff game given the stakes. The ‘Dores beating the Vols on the road to punch their ticket to their first CFP would be something else, but the Vols answering the call and ripping up that ticket to put a bow on the 2025 regular season would be something else, too.
It would also be a whole lot of fun.
Yes, had Tennessee held on to beat No. 5 Georgia two months ago, this all feels different, and the Vanderbilt game might be a play-in game for both teams. That would be awesome, but I think these final two rivalry games can be awesome, too, even without the CFP implications for Tennessee in 2025.