247Sports predicts where Tennessee Vols will finish in SEC East

We're a little under two months away from the start of the 2021 college football season, which means "prediction" articles are going to start popping up nearly every day. This week, 247Sports revealed their predicted order of finish in the SEC West and East. And they aren't feeling very confident about Josh Heupel digging the […]

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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We're a little under two months away from the start of the 2021 college football season, which means "prediction" articles are going to start popping up nearly every day.

This week, 247Sports revealed their predicted order of finish in the SEC West and East.

And they aren't feeling very confident about Josh Heupel digging the Tennessee Vols out of the cellar in his first season as the head coach on Rocky Top.

247Sports has the Vols finishing No. 5 in the SEC East this season, ahead of only South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

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(The predicted order of finish was compiled via a survey that included 32 reporters from the 247Sports network.)

Here's the full predicted order of finish for the SEC East.

  1. Georgia Bulldogs
  2. Florida Gators
  3. Kentucky Wildcats
  4. Missouri Tigers
  5. Tennessee Volunteers
  6. South Carolina Gamecocks
  7. Vanderbilt Commodores

It's difficult to argue against this predicted order of finish.

While I wouldn't be surprised to see Tennessee finish above No. 5 in the SEC East, I also wouldn't be surprised to see UT finish below No. 5. The program has a lot working against it in 2021. The Vols have a new head coach and the program has gone through a lot of turnover in the last six months (both off-the-field and on-the-field).

Expecting Heupel to pull multiple upsets in year one of building Tennessee's football program could be a bit much to ask.

We'll see how the season goes, but for now, this feels like a totally fair expectation for year one of the Heupel era.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

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