ESPN bowl projection for Tennessee would break the internet
The Tennessee Volunteers still have a lot of goals in front of them after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats. The Vols need a tad bit of help, but the SEC East title isn't out of consideration. 10 regular season wins is also still on the table. However, ESPN doesn't see the Vols reaching those marks. Far […]
The Tennessee Volunteers still have a lot of goals in front of them after defeating the Kentucky Wildcats. The Vols need a tad bit of help, but the SEC East title isn't out of consideration. 10 regular season wins is also still on the table.
However, ESPN doesn't see the Vols reaching those marks. Far from it, actually. Both Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach forecast the Vols to end up in the Music City Bowl on December 30 for the second time in three seasons.
Schlabach sees the Vols taking on Minnesota. However, Bonagura projects a far more interesting opponent for Tennessee: the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Tennessee and Greg Schiano's background needs no explanation to anyone but the most casual of sports fans. Former UT athletic director John Currie was on the doorstep of hiring Schiano as the next Tennessee head coach in November 2017.
However, that pending hire leaked to the media and caused a furor among Tennessee students, lawmakers, alumni, and fans so strongly that the hire was nixed before it was formalized. The reason was Schiano's former ties to the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State, where Schiano was an assistant and was alleged by ex-Penn State assistant Mike McQueary to have had knowledge of Sandusky's abuse while at Penn State, which Schiano has denied.
Currie was fired and Phillip Fulmer was hired as his replacement. Fulmer went on to hire Jeremy Pruitt, who was fired three years after taking the job with a 16-19 record. Schiano ended up returning to Rutgers in 2020, where he's guided Rutgers to a 6-2 record in his fourth season. Meanwhile the Vols have taken a big step forward under Josh Heupel, coming off the school's first 11-win season since 2001.
It would be impossible to ignore the implications of Schiano facing and getting one over on the school that said he wasn't good enough to coach for them. I can already hear the national writers Pat Forde and Dan Wolken gleefully banging out the ledes of their stories on their keyboards.
Tennessee fans largely wouldn't enjoy a trip to Nashville again. The bar has been raised after winning the Orange Bowl last year. However, getting a bit of a last laugh against those who ripped Tennessee fans for how the Schiano situation went down wouldn't be a terrible consolation prize for Vol fans if the season goes south.
Josh Heupel appears bothered by officiating again after Tennessee’s win over Kentucky
The Vols head coach’s feelings were apparent despite holding back
