Prominent college football writer makes encouraging season prediction for Tennessee Vols
The Athletic's Stewart Mandel, one of the top national college football writers, revealed his 2023 SEC season predictions on Wednesday morning and he has an encouraging view of the Tennessee Vols this fall. Mandel, unsurprisingly, has Georgia winning the SEC East with a 12-0 record. On the other side of the conference, Mandel has LSU […]
The Athletic's Stewart Mandel, one of the top national college football writers, revealed his 2023 SEC season predictions on Wednesday morning and he has an encouraging view of the Tennessee Vols this fall.
Mandel, unsurprisingly, has Georgia winning the SEC East with a 12-0 record.
On the other side of the conference, Mandel has LSU winning the SEC West with an 11-1 record.
Mandel has Alabama and Tennessee finishing second in the SEC West and SEC East, respectively, with each program finishing with a 10-2 record (the same outcome for both as last season).
From The Athletic: Last season was no fluke. Josh Heupel’s deep-ball offense is a nightmare for most defenses, and quarterback Joe Milton may be even better suited for it due to his cannon of an arm. The Vols defense was not as awful as many made it seem for most of last season, but it’s not at the level yet to spar with physical teams like Georgia.
Mandel's other big prediction that he made is that Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier will get fired in Week 11
From The Athletic: Big-brand SEC programs don’t let coaches have two bad seasons, and Napier, 6-7 in his first one, has the makings of a last-place team this fall. That former Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz is his best option at that position does not bode well. If he really goes 3-9, the boosters will find $32 million to pull the plug.
Napier is entering his second season at Florida after going 6-7 last year. It seems a bit early for Napier to get the boot, but the Gators don't typically show a lot of patience with underperforming coaches (just ask Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen). If Florida finishes with a worse record than last season, Napier's job could certainly be in jeopardy.
Virginia HC Tony Elliott showed the Vols’ current team a lot of respect
Virginia head coach Tony Elliott showed the Tennessee Vols’ current team a lot of respect
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
