Saturday wasn’t a very fun day for the Tennessee Vols.
Tennessee was outclassed by the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens on Saturday. The final score was 27-13, but the game was never that close. Georgia was in full control the entire afternoon.
If you’re a Vols fan and you’re in a bad mood tonight, I get it. This was a huge game and winning it would’ve likely won the SEC East for Tennessee. Instead, the Vols need to run the table (which they should) and hope that Georgia loses to Mississippi State and Kentucky (which they almost certainly won’t).
Unless something wild happens, Tennessee’s SEC East division title drought will see another year.
Despite the rough game against the Bulldogs, though, Vols fans should still be holding their heads high on Saturday night.
It’s November and the Vols are 8-1. They have wins over Florida, LSU, and Alabama.
Most Tennessee fans were just hoping for 10 wins this season. If the Vols take care of business in their next three games (Missouri, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt), they’ll finish the regular season 11-1 and they might make the College Football Playoff.
There’s no UT realistic fan that thought this was remotely possible this season.
Not many teams go undefeated. And the ones that do usually have had several top-five recruiting classes in a row — something Tennessee doesn’t have.
What the Vols have done this year in Josh Heupel’s second season has been unbelievable.
Sure, losing sucks. The Georgia loss doesn’t feel good — especially since Tennessee didn’t play their best and made numerous self-inflicted mistakes.
But Vols fans need to keep this loss in perspective. Georgia is an established program that has been on this stage before. The Vols are still learning how to handle success. They’re still a young program under Heupel. This is just the beginning for Tennessee.
And what UT is doing this season is similar to what the Bulldogs did a few years ago when they were a young program under Kirby Smart
In 2017, in Smart’s second season at Georgia, the Bulldogs went 11-1 during the regular season and got blown out by Auburn 40-17 on the road (I have to mention that Smart took over a much better situation than Heupel).
The Bulldogs went on to play for the national championship in 2017 (Georgia also won the SEC that season, but the SEC East was much weaker and the Bulldogs didn’t need a lot of help to win the division).
I’m not saying Tennessee will play for a natty. Maybe they will. I have no idea and neither do you.
But what Heupel and these players have done this season is comparable to what Georgia did in 2017 (and Tennessee beat Alabama this season, something the Bulldogs didn’t do in 2017 as they lost to the Tide in the national championship game).
This is still the best Vols team we’ve seen in over 20 years (since 2001). The loss to Georgia doesn’t change that.
Tennessee fans should still be beaming with pride when they wear the Power T and an Orange shirt this week.
The season is far from over. And the Vols can still accomplish some really special things. Don’t let one loss (losses happen in sports…they don’t always spell doom) rob you of the joy of what Tennessee has accomplished this season.
Featured image via Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK
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November 06, 2022 at 07:51AM
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