Tennessee football schedule 2020: Time is now to hop on Vols bandwagon

The Tennessee football schedule is one of the toughest among SEC teams as Jeremy Pruitt looks to continue the rebuild going on in Knoxville.

Tennessee football is about a year or two away from being a force in the SEC football landscape but the Vols schedule this year may accelerate that if they can pull off an upset or two.

The Tennessee Volunteers appear to have the right head coach in Jeremy Pruitt. His team came alive in the second half of 2019 after a disastrous start out of the gate. While the Vols probably are not quite good enough yet to contend for an SEC East crown, they are well on their way towards doing so with how well they’ve recruited and how well the finished the second half of last year.

The Vols have tough home games vs. Alabama and Florida while they’ll travel to Auburn and Georgia in what could be a pivotal year for Tennessee football

• Tennessee football home games: Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Texas A&M
• Tennessee football road games: Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Vanderbilt

Though only three Power 5 conferences are planning to play this fall, it probably still doesn’t help the Vols’ chances of qualifying for the College Football Playoff for the first time in school history. Tennessee is not ready to win the SEC East, let alone the SEC just yet, so thinking they’ll get in as an at-large team would be essentially a pipe dream at this point. Here is what they’re up against.

Last season, Tennessee went 5-3 in SEC play with losses to three of its biggest rivals in the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Florida Gators and the Georgia Bulldogs. Though there is a chance they could knock off maybe one of those three perpetual nemeses, Rocky Top should prepare for home losses to Alabama and Florida, as well as a road loss vs. the Dawgs in Athens.

If the Vols were to win one of those three games, perhaps the home date vs. Florida is their best bet? Alabama might be the best team in the SEC, but the Crimson Tide have questions at quarterback. Will it be Mac Jones or true freshman Bryce Young winning games for them. A road win at Georgia has to be the most unlikely win for Tennessee this year, but it could still happen.

While other programs benefited from the addition of two SEC games to round out their schedule, Tennessee was not one of those teams. The Vols now have to host the Texas A&M Aggies, as well as take a trek down to The Plains to face the Auburn Tigers. These teams aren’t as good as Alabama, Florida or Georgia, but there is a chance Tennessee ends up dropping both of them, too.

So what degree of variance are we looking at with the Vols? How good could they be with this schedule? What is their ceiling and what is their floor? If everything comes up aces for Tennessee, they can go 8-2. The Vols would beat all the teams they should, hold off Auburn and Texas A&M and upset either Alabama, Florida or Georgia. They are still losing to two of their three nemeses.

As for the floor, there is a chance they’re a sub-.500 team. They could drop all five of those games in question and either lose at home to the Kentucky Wildcats or on the road to the South Carolina Gamecocks. The only “guaranteed” wins the Vols have on their ledger are home vs. the Missouri Tigers, at the Arkansas Razorbacks and at the in-state rival Vanderbilt Commodores. 3-7 is rough.

But this is all about getting on the Tennessee hype train, right? Of course, it is. We, and hopefully the Vols, aren’t going to let you down. So here’s how it’s going to go for them. Look for Tennessee to finish somewhere with a 6-4 or 5-5 record, but it has more to do with a brutal draw than anything else. Think of them as the 2019 Texas A&M team that went 7-5. That’s the Vols in 2020.

The schedule is too daunting to win big, but a battle-tested Tennessee team ascends in 2021.

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