Tennessee Vols fans will appreciate Steve Spurrier's take on Ohio State and the College Football Playoff
It's not often that Tennessee Vols fans agree with Steve Spurrier, but they will almost certainly agree with the former Florida Gators head coach's take on UT's loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff. Tennessee lost 42-17 to Ohio State this past Saturday night in Columbus, ending […]
It's not often that Tennessee Vols fans agree with Steve Spurrier, but they will almost certainly agree with the former Florida Gators head coach's take on UT's loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
Tennessee lost 42-17 to Ohio State this past Saturday night in Columbus, ending the Vols' 2024 season.
Spurrier appeared on Another Dooley Noted podcast on Monday and he questioned why Ohio State hosted a playoff game over Tennessee.
“If you were the home team, it was a fun weekend, on my goodness,” said Spurrier. "Tennessee, we’re SEC, I guess we were sort of pulling for Tennessee against Ohio State. But anyway, why was the game at Ohio State? They were 10-2. Tennessee’s 10-2. Who had the tougher schedule should get the home game, in my opinion. Is that how they did it? I don't know either. Because they were like, No 8 and No. 9 right there together. I mean the home field team won convincingly in all four games."
In true Spurrier fashion, the head ball coach pointed out that Tennessee is now 0-22 in their last 22 road games against top 10 teams.
There was plenty of debate before the first round of the playoff about whether or not the Vols deserved to host a playoff game over Ohio State or Penn State.
Ohio State's dominant performance against Tennessee on Saturday night, however, shows that the Buckeyes were certainly deserving of hosting a playoff game.
Ultimately, the only reason the Vols didn't host a home game was because of the automatic byes for the top four conference champions, which pushed Boise State and Arizona State ahead of Tennessee in the bracket. If not for the automatic byes, the Vols would've been the No. 7 seed and they would've hosted SMU in the first round. A home matchup against SMU would've been much more winnable for Tennessee.
Changes will likely be made to the seeding process this offseason. But that won't change the fact that to win a championship, teams have to win big games whether that's at home, on the road, or at a neutral site. Tennessee, simply put, wasn't a national championship team this season. The blowout loss to the Buckeyes shows that the Vols still have quite a bit of work to do to get the program to a championship level.
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