National media outlet predicts Tennessee Vols' wins and losses in 2024
The Athletic's Seth Emerson predicted this week how the 2024 season will go for each SEC team and he doesn't think the Tennessee Vols will improve much on their 8-4 regular season record from the 2023 season. Emerson has the Vols going 9-3 next fall with losses to Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia. Tennessee plays Oklahoma […]
The Athletic's Seth Emerson predicted this week how the 2024 season will go for each SEC team and he doesn't think the Tennessee Vols will improve much on their 8-4 regular season record from the 2023 season.
Emerson has the Vols going 9-3 next fall with losses to Oklahoma, Alabama, and Georgia.
Tennessee plays Oklahoma and Georgia on the road while they'll play Alabama in Neyland Stadium.
It's still a bit too early to know how the 2024 season will play out considering rosters can still change quite a bit by the time the season starts.
For example, Tennessee doesn't know yet if they'll land LSU transfer offensive tackle Zalance Heard. If they do, that significantly improves the Vols' offensive line.
Conversely, Alabama has lost several key players to the portal since Nick Saban announced his retirement. On Wednesday morning, news broke that Crimson Tide safety Caleb Downs, one of the top players in the nation, is planning to enter the transfer portal.
Predicting Tennessee to lose to Georgia is fair — the Vols haven't proven they can beat the Bulldogs yet. And the Oklahoma game feels like a complete toss-up since it's on the road.
But the Alabama game is one that Tennessee absolutely has to win now that Saban is out of town. And predicting Kalen DeBoer, a first-year SEC coach with a roster that's going through a significant amount of turnover, to beat Josh Heupel (who is in year four in the SEC as a head coach) feels like a bad take. Tennessee, after all, beat an Alabama team that had two top-five NFL Draft picks on the field the last time the Crimson Tide visited Knoxville.
The Vols likely need to go at least 10-2 to have a legitimate shot at reaching the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024. If Emerson's prediction proves to be accurate, it will almost certainly mean that Tennessee came up short of their goal of reaching the playoff.
Vols OL John Campbell appears to send message with latest social media post
That might clear some things up
