The Tennessee Vols will enter the 2022 season with significantly higher expectations than they did in 2021.

That's because Tennessee showed last season under head coach Josh Heupel that they can be a threat in the SEC. The Vols' up-tempo offense presents a unique challenge to opponents — even teams with elite talent on the defensive side of the ball.

Tennessee has a legitimate shot at winning 10 games in 2022. There are really only two "automatic losses" on the Vols' schedule — Alabama and Georgia. The Vols' scheme works against the Tide and the Bulldogs, but the talent gap (especially when it comes to depth) is still too big for Tennessee to close out a game against those two.

But other than those two games, every game on the Vols' schedule is more than winnable. I currently have Tennessee going 9-3 (with losses to Alabama, Georgia, and LSU).

While 9-3 isn't in a stretch for the Vols in 2022, it's dependent on everything going just right for Tennessee. That means avoiding losses in games that should absolutely be wins.

247Sports recently named the biggest "trap game" for each SEC team in 2022.

And they think the Vols' game against Missouri on November 12 is one that could cause issues for UT next season.

From 247Sports:

Coming down the stretch, Tennessee could be one of the SEC's "hunted" teams as a conference title contender this season, which makes the Vols marked in November potentially inside the top 25. We've mentioned Missouri previously in this piece as a trap-game opponent and the Tigers will be getting Tennessee in a great spot coming off the Vols' emotional effort at Georgia. That's the game Josh Heupel and Tennessee has circled in November, not this innocent matchup at Neyland Stadium that the Vols have owned each of the past three seasons. Tennessee scored 62 points against Missouri last season, so this isn't a game the Vols are worried about.

I can't disagree with 247Sports here — this could definitely be a trap game for the Volunteers.

Tennessee throttled Missouri on the road in 2021, beating the Tigers 62-24 in Columbia.

That result seems to suggest that Missouri won't be a big threat to Tennessee in 2022.

The Vols should win this game easily — especially since it's in Knoxville. But the Tigers are talented enough to pull off an upset. There isn't a huge talent gap between Missouri and Tennessee. So if the Vols walk into this game overconfident because of last year's result, they could easily leave with a loss.

I don't think that's what will happen. I expect the Vols to pick up where they left off against the Tigers last season. But Heupel and his staff will need to do a great job before playing Mizzou to make sure Tennessee's players stayed locked in for this one.

Featured image via Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports