‘Just ask Alabama’ – ESPN’s Greg McElroy drops strong statement about Tennessee as the Vols look to go 4-0 in November
The Tennessee Volunteers need to go 4-0 in November in order to reach the College Football Playoff. The Vols enter November with a 6-2 record.
The difference in Tennessee being 6-2 and 7-1 is a missed handoff.
If Vols quarterback George MacIntyre hands the ball to tight end DaSaahn Brame late in the fourth quarter against South Carolina last Saturday, Tennessee wins the game.
But the result is what it is. The Vols are 6-2.
My point is that your opinion shouldn’t change much on who Tennessee is as a team because of one play. That one play determined the result, but it doesn’t change that Tennessee dominated South Carolina for 50 minutes of that game and had numerous chances to close the door on the Gamecocks.
That’s part of why ESPN’s Greg McElroy still has Tennessee as one of his scariest teams in the SEC as we near Halloween.
McElroy detailed his “scariest teams” in the SEC (the teams you’d least want to play right now), and he has Tennessee at No. 5.
“They have the No. 5 defense in the country,” said McElroy of the Vols. “Just ask Alabama. They held the Tide to just 10 points a couple of Saturdays ago, and they’ll hand the ball to DeSean Bishop until you just tap for mercy. They have held three opponents to 10 points or fewer, but the offense right now is 44th in efficiency. Tennessee doesn’t care; they’re not going to try to beat you 45-38. They want to beat you 26-10. They want to beat you 17-14, and they want to make you feel it every single time they touch the football.
“And yes, they lost at South Carolina on a field goal as time expired. They also had three touchdowns that were wiped off the board by penalties throughout that game. So that’s not a team that necessarily got beat. It’s kind of a team that beat themselves. Now, the other loss was by three to Texas. … I want no part of that [Tennessee] defense. Tennessee is off this week, and then boom, I think they can get back on track. They host Kentucky at home. Kentucky should be hopefully a top six or seven team. So for Tennessee, it’s a big opportunity to improve their standing.”
McElroy has been pretty positive on the Vols all season (he was actually pretty high on Tennessee before the season started), and it sounds like the loss to South Carolina didn’t really change his feelings.
If the Vols can clean up the penalties and execute consistently in high leverage moments, they’ll be as dangerous as any team in the nation down the stretch.
