National media outlet predicts how many games the Tennessee Vols will win in 2023
247Sports recently predicted how many games each SEC team will win in 2023 and they think the Tennessee Vols will take a step back in Josh Heupel's third season leading the program. The national sports media outlet predicted that Tennessee will win nine games in 2023. From 247Sports: Tennessee plays one road game (at Florida) […]
247Sports recently predicted how many games each SEC team will win in 2023 and they think the Tennessee Vols will take a step back in Josh Heupel's third season leading the program.
The national sports media outlet predicted that Tennessee will win nine games in 2023.
Tennessee plays one road game (at Florida) during the first seven weeks of the season before showdowns at Alabama and Kentucky in October will likely dictate how the Volunteers look coming down the stretch. For a team that went through the gauntlet unscathed in 2022 prior to the road matchup at Georgia, that could be a good omen for the program once again. We're expecting Tennessee to be ranked inside the top 15 to begin the season and Josh Heupel's group has a great chance to stay there heading into the Third Saturday in October.
That's probably a fair prediction.
Tennessee has to replace several important offensive players from last season — Hendon Hooker, Jalin Hyatt, Cedric Tillman, Darnell Wright, Jerome Carvin, and Princeton Fant are all off to the NFL.
Those six players were extremely important to the Vols' success over the last two seasons.
And while Tennessee has the guys to replace him, they still have to prove themselves.
UT's schedule, at a glance, suggests the Vols should go 10-2 with losses to Alabama (on the road) and Georgia (they're the favorites in every SEC game until someone knocks them off). 247Sports is assuming the Vols drop another game in addition to those two (maybe at Florida or at home against either South Carolina or Texas A&M).
Tennessee is obviously hoping to win the SEC and compete for a national championship — that's always going to be the goal under Heupel.
But realistically, nine wins should be the floor for the Volunteers moving forward. Anything less than nine wins will have to be considered a disappointment (unless there are major injury issues).
Featured image via Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
