ESPN says Tennessee Vols have one of the most intriguing games in September
The Tennessee Vols will enter the 2023 season with grand expectations. While the national media is expecting just a 9 or 10-win season for the Vols, the folks inside Tennessee's facility are expecting to get to Atlanta (for the SEC Championship game) and compete for a national championship. "At the end of the day, we […]
The Tennessee Vols will enter the 2023 season with grand expectations.
While the national media is expecting just a 9 or 10-win season for the Vols, the folks inside Tennessee's facility are expecting to get to Atlanta (for the SEC Championship game) and compete for a national championship.
"At the end of the day, we want to win football games," said Vols head coach Josh Heupel earlier this month. "That’s the most important thing. So the number we pay the most attention to is the record and at the end of the day, we’ve got to get to Atlanta."
If Tennessee is going to make it to Atlanta, then they have to — at the very least — go 1-1 against Alabama and Georgia (if they beat Alabama, they'll need Georgia to drop two games to get Atlanta…which is unlikely).
Those two matchups are easily the biggest games on Tennessee's schedule in 2023, but there are still 10 other regular season games they have to play. And one of those games is one that on paper the Vols should win, even though history says they shouldn't win it.
Tennessee has a key matchup against the Florida Gators in The Swamp on September 16 that the Vols have to win if they want to get to Atlanta and/or reach the playoff.
The only problem is that Tennessee hasn't won in The Swamp since 2003.
That's part of the reason why ESPN named the Vols' matchup against the Gators as one of the seven most intriguing college football games in September.
From ESPN: Tennessee won for only the second time in the schools' past 18 meetings a season ago, fueling the Vols to their first 11-win campaign since 2001. Josh Heupel was able to break through in only his second year as Tennessee's coach. The venue shifts to the Swamp on Sept. 16. Billy Napier, entering his second year as Florida's coach, gets a chance in front of the home folks to show he has the Gators heading in the right direction after their 6-7 finish in 2022. The obvious question: If Heupel could do it in two years (especially in the shadow of an NCAA investigation), why can't Napier? Each team will have a new starting quarterback. And the Gators will be facing their second preseason top-15 team in the first three weeks of the season; they open at Utah on Aug. 31.
Before last season, that game might be circled as a "must-win but probably won't win" game for the Vols. But after last season — plus the current state of Florida football (shaky at best) — that matchup seems more than winnable for Tennessee, history be damned.
Of course, the Vols still have to actually go out there and win the game. We've seen Tennessee suffer plenty of heartbreakers in the Swamp (2015 and 2017 were rough for Vols fans), but perhaps 2023 will be another season full of streak-enders for Tennessee. They'll certainly need that to be the case if they plan to play in Atlanta during the first weekend in December.
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK