The Tennessee Vols are officially national championship contenders after beating Alabama
This is not a sentence I was sure I'd ever get to write again, but the Tennessee Vols are officially national championship contenders. After all the hype surrounding the Tennessee/Alabama game this week, the Vols didn't lay an egg against the Crimson Tide. Instead, Tennessee delivered a true "instant classic" via a thrilling 52-49 win […]
This is not a sentence I was sure I'd ever get to write again, but the Tennessee Vols are officially national championship contenders.
After all the hype surrounding the Tennessee/Alabama game this week, the Vols didn't lay an egg against the Crimson Tide.
Instead, Tennessee delivered a true "instant classic" via a thrilling 52-49 win over Alabama.
It's the Vols' first win in the series since 2006 (the year before Nick Saban's arrival).
Tennessee won the game despite a costly fumble in the fourth quarter that was returned by Alabama for a touchdown and gave the Crimson Tide a 7-point lead.
The Vols, as they did all day, stormed back to tie the game on wide receiver Jalin Hyatt's fifth touchdown of the day.
Alabama then missed a field goal and the Vols were able to get into field goal range where Chase McGrath proceeded to knock through the game-winning field goal.
Tennessee moves to 6-0 with the win and they'll be ranked inside the top five on Sunday when the updated AP Top 25 poll is released.
The Vols' toughest remaining game on their schedule is against Georgia. Tennessee could lose that game and still have a great shot of reaching the College Football Playoff as a one-loss team.
And with their remaining schedule, that seems like the most likely outcome for the Vols. The Georgia game is the only game the rest of the season where Tennessee won't be favored.
Obviously, anything can happen — Kentucky could upset the Vols — but the most likely scenario at this point is that Tennessee will be at least 11-1 when November ends.
If that's the case, then the Vols will probably be in the playoff.
Read that again.
The Vols are on a path where the most likely outcome is an appearance in the playoff.
It's truly unbelievable what Heupel has managed to do in just 18 months at Tennessee. No one saw this coming. The absolute best-case scenario for the Vols was supposed to be a 10-win season.
It's been a long time coming, but the glory days are back. Tennessee is back among college football royalty. And their special season might just be getting started.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
