No, it wasn’t a nightmare.
Put any adjective you want on Tennessee’s humiliating (there is one) loss to South Carolina
on Saturday night. It would be insufficient to describe what will go down as the program’s
worst defeat since Georgia State in 2019, Vanderbilt in 2016, or even LSU in the 2001 SEC
Championship Game.
South Carolina, which scored just six points in a lopsided loss to Florida the week before,
scored 63 points against a Tennessee secondary that didn’t look like it could compete with
your neighbourhood high school powerhouse. Spencer Rattler, a quarterback who had 8
touchdown passes entering Saturday night, went nuclear. He finished with 438 yards on 30
of 37 attempts, 6 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions.
To make matters worse, star quarterback Hendon Hooker suffered a non-contact injury in
the fourth quarter. With this being his final year at Tennessee, it’s difficult to say whether
we’ve seen the last of the star quarterback in a Vols uniform.
The offence moved the ball fairly well, but not to the level it has been all season.
Tennessee’s worst defensive performance since Derek Dooley’s tenure doesn’t even begin
to describe it.
When it counted, South Carolina was the superior team. The Gamecocks, like Tennessee’s
College Football Playoff hopes, are now a distant memory. Let’s get this party started, shall
we?
Here are three things on the line for Tennessee football against Vanderbilt next week.
Tennessee will play two more games this season, with the final one determined by next
week’s matchup against a Vanderbilt team that has won two straight and is looking for its
first bowl appearance since 2018. If you’re a Vols fan, you should ask yourself this:
Sugar/Orange Bowl or Citrus Bowl? Tennessee will almost certainly make its first New Year’s
Six appearance since the College Football Playoff was established in 2014.
A loss to Vanderbilt — we’re suspending all assumptions after Saturday — would likely
result in no worse than a Citrus Bowl appearance for Tennessee. For the time being, it
appears that the SEC bid in the bowl would face either Penn State or the winner of the Big
Ten West, which is likely to be Iowa. Of course, things can change in an instant.
Tennessee finished 0-8 in the SEC in 2019. It’s quite an accomplishment for the Citrus Bowl
to be the worst-case scenario three years later. Nonetheless, it appears to be somewhat
disappointing.
Vanderbilt’s bowl aspirations
Everyone knew from the start of the season that this was not your typical Vanderbilt team.
Don’t get me wrong: the Commodores are still a bottom-three SEC team, but they aren’t the
worst in the conference, which is rare.
With its back against the wall, Vanderbilt has quietly won two games against Kentucky and
Florida. The Commodores are 5-6 on the season and one win away from.500 with an upset
victory over the Vols. That’s equivalent to Vanderbilt winning the Super Bowl. And the
opportunity to clinch a bowl berth against Tennessee? The Commodores are already
overconfident. They are salivating at the prospect of pulling off an upset against the reeling
Vols.
Aside from the sensationalism, it’s still Vanderbilt. Tennessee also has a top-five offence in
the country, and it has a lot to prove on the defensive side of the ball to compete in a bowl
game of the calibre that New Year’s 6 will require.
The Vols have a chance to play in the Sugar/Orange Bowl while also keeping a rival out of
the Gasparilla Bowl.
The team’s first 10-win season in over a decade.
Tennessee hasn’t had a 10-win season since 2007, when it won the Outback Bowl after
losing the SEC Championship to eventual national champion LSU.
That could change in Nashville next Saturday. The Vols will be out for blood against the
Commodores, and head coach Josh Heupel will be eager to use a big win over Vanderbilt as
motivation heading into a strong bowl game in only his second season on Rocky Top.
For many people, ten wins before the season was a pipe dream. That was more of a Year 3
objective. Even with a loss to South Carolina fresh in the mind, Tennessee appears to be
ahead of schedule for the time being.