The Tennessee Vols’ national storyline is becoming excessive.
The regular season is still two games away for the Tennessee Vols, who are currently 7-3. A second 10-win season for the show since 2007 is still conceivable.
However, the storyline in the national media is that the Volunteers’ 2023 campaign was a letdown.
Take a look at this week’s headline from The Athletic.
Tennessee’s certainly had some disappointing losses this season, but a very bad year?
I don’t see how that’s the case at all.
Have we already forgotten where this program was from 2008 to 2020?
The Vols’ two best years during that stretch were 9-4 seasons in 2015 and 2016 — two teams that had loaded rosters but had the unfortunate distinction of being coached by Butch Jones.
The 2023 squad probably won’t finish 10-3 (unless they manage to shock Georgia on Saturday, which is conceivable but unlikely), but they have a good chance of finishing at least 9-4 (if they win their bowl game).
Those nine-four seasons in the years between 2008 and 2020 were anomalies. From 2008 until 2020, the Vols won exactly six games a season on average.
The Vols should, at worst, end the season 8-5 (though it could be appropriate to discuss a very poor campaign if they fall to Vanderbilt).
I’m just having hard time understanding how Tennessee’s current situation could even come close to being described as “very bad”.
Sure, Tennessee’s players were vocal before the season about wanting to compete for the SEC East division title. And they came up short of that goal. But no one should be surprised that this year’s version of the Vols weren’t quite as good as last year’s version. Tennessee lost a significant amount of talent from last year’s 11-2 squad.
Three players were selected in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft: edge rusher Byron Young, wide receivers Cedric Tillman and Jalin Hyatt, and quarterback Hendon Hooker.
Darnell Wright, a right tackle, was selected with the tenth overall choice in the draft. The Kansas City Chiefs signed left guard Jerome Carvin, an undrafted free agent (the Vols have struggled at left guard this season, incidentally).
The Vols have struggled with injuries this season in addition to the skill Tennessee lost to the NFL.
BYU transfer linebacker Keenan Pili hasn’t played since the season-opener due to injury. Center Cooper Mays missed the first month of the season. Quarterback Joe Milton probably should’ve missed a couple of games in September. Wide receiver Bru McCoy is out for the year. Cornerback Kamal Hadden, who was statistically one of the best cornerbacks in the SEC, is out for the year. Essentially the entire offensive line has been forced to play through injuries due to a lack of depth. And now wide receiver Dont’e Thornton is out for the rest of the regular season.
And yet, if the Vols defeat Georgia, which would completely alter the course of the season, they may still have their second-best season in the previous fifteen years. If they defeat Vandy and the team they play in the bowl game, they will tie for their second-best season since 2007.
Not very long ago, following the recruitment scandal that resulted in Jeremy Pruitt’s firing as head coach of Tennessee football, almost every national college football commentator was penning the program’s obituary.
And just a couple of years later, Josh Heupel has some of those same national analysts believing that a 7-3 record through 10 games is “very bad”.
I can’t make it make sense. But I can assure you that nothing about Heupel’s tenure has been “very bad”. There are some things the Vols would undoubtedly like to do better, but the program is clearly on an upward trajectory with Heupel at the helm.
