Scheduling quirk turns a must-win matchup into an unexpected trap game for the Tennessee Vols in 2025
It's no secret what the Tennessee Vols need to do in order to return to the College Football Playoff in 2025. Based on what we saw in the first year of the 12-team CFP, the Vols need to go at least 10-2 to ensure a second straight trip to the playoff. That's doable with Tennessee's […]
It's no secret what the Tennessee Vols need to do in order to return to the College Football Playoff in 2025.
Based on what we saw in the first year of the 12-team CFP, the Vols need to go at least 10-2 to ensure a second straight trip to the playoff.
That's doable with Tennessee's schedule, but it means they have to win two out of the following three games: at Florida, at Alabama, at home against Georgia.
Additionally, the Vols will need to run the table in the other nine games on their regular-season schedule.
Nothing is easy in the SEC, but Tennessee should be favored in each of those nine games.
There's a scheduling quirk, however, that makes one of those games a "trap game" for the Volunteers.
Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde pointed out that several SEC programs struggled with back-to-back road conference games last season.
From SI.com: Back-to-back conference road games didn’t go well for several teams in the SEC last year. Among the big second-game defeats: Georgia lost to Alabama after winning at Kentucky; LSU lost at Texas A&M after beating Arkansas; Mississippi lost at LSU after winning at South Carolina; Tennessee lost at Arkansas after winning at Oklahoma.
Tennessee will travel to Alabama on October 18. The next week (October 25), the Vols will play Kentucky on the road.
Recent history shows that it's tough for SEC teams to sweep back-to-back SEC road games. And while Kentucky is a program that Tennessee has owned during the Josh Heupel era, it's also worth nothing that it's never easy to win in Lexington (just ask Kirby Smart and the Georgia Bulldogs after their 13-12 win in Lexington last season).
For the Vols to win that game, it'll be important for Heupel and his staff to keep players focused and locked in on the task at hand — regardless of what happens the previous week in Tuscaloosa.
