ESPN has a strong take on Tennessee Vols ahead of matchup against Pittsburgh
ESPN's Bill Connelly, the man behind the network's college football SP+ rankings, had some interesting things to say about the Tennessee Vols this week. The SP+ rankings, which use a variety of metrics to determine where a team should be ranked (taking human subjectivity out of the equation), had an extremely favorable view of the […]
ESPN's Bill Connelly, the man behind the network's college football SP+ rankings, had some interesting things to say about the Tennessee Vols this week.
The SP+ rankings, which use a variety of metrics to determine where a team should be ranked (taking human subjectivity out of the equation), had an extremely favorable view of the Vols entering the 2022 season (they had Tennessee at No. 10).
Connelly admitted this week he was skeptical of that ranking. But Tennessee's strong performance against Ball State in the season opener has changed Connelly's thinking a bit.
The SP+ projections had the Vols beating Ball State by 31.1 points. Tennessee ended up winning by 49 points as they throttled the Cardinals 59-10.
The SP+ projections have the Vols winning by 7.1 points on Saturday against Pittsburgh. If the Vols outperform the SP+ projections again, this game could be a blowout.
And if that happens, Connelly suggested it will confirm that the SP+ rankings' favorable view of Tennessee is accurate.
Pitt played at one of the slowest tempos in the country last week and created lots of havoc against WVU (eight tackles for loss, nine passes defensed). Tennessee played at a ridiculously high tempo against BSU — this is a Josh Heupel team, after all — and forced the issue on defense but missed a lot of tackles. Pitt attempts controlled chaos, and Tennessee just takes the regulator off and starts swinging. If the Vols overachieve projections like they did last Thursday, they're going to win pretty comfortably, and we might have to come to grips with living in a world in which Tennessee genuinely has its act together. It's been a while. Let's see if it comes to pass.
The national media is starting to believe in Tennessee. And not just because of manufactured hype, but because of the results on the field.
Josh Heupel is pushing all the right buttons so far. If he can lead the Vols to a win against Pittsburgh on Saturday, you're going to see a lot of folks jump on the Tennessee bandwagon.
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