Tennessee Volunteers: Can the Volunteers Breakthrough to Atlanta?

When media, coaches, and players assembled in Birmingham, Alabama for the 2015 SEC Media Days, they predicted the winner of the SEC Championship game as well as divisional winners. Western co-favorites Alabama and Auburn as well as SEC East favorite Georgia have been covered thus far in this series. After those three, there is a considerable drop-off from the media’s perspective.

Georgia (166), Auburn (108) and Alabama (92) ran away with the first place division votes. The next closest team is the Tennessee Volunteers, with a whopping 36. If the league has nearly as much parity as pundits would have you believe, someone clearly forgot to tell the voters at SEC Media Days. They think the SEC is a three team race in 2015.

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It is not an unfair sentiment. Auburn and Alabama have been trading places representing the West in Atlanta the last few years. The Iron Bowl has even acted as a play-in game at times. In the East, Georgia is the only team with any level of playoff aspirations. Other teams in the East are good, they simply do not have the same ceiling as Georgia.

Tennessee is more likely to play spoiler than win the SEC East. With a little stumbling from Georgia, which has come to be expected, they have as good a chance as anyone else.

On to the speculation . . .

What Needs to go Right

The Tennessee Volunteers return 17 starters and need the majority of them to have improved noticeably for the Volunteers to reach the SEC Championship Game. But Tennessee’s hopes of landing in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game begin and end with Joshua Dobbs. His rise from third on the depth chart to starter was astounding and is the reason Tennessee made and won their bowl game last year. If he continues to rise, this team’s ceiling rises with it. Another

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factor that could boost Tennessee is if Alvin Kamara is the level of running back Volunteer fans are hoping for. If he can combine his agility with Jalen Hurd’s aggressive running style, their potent rushing attack would greatly alleviate the pressure on Dobbs. Tennessee needs the offensive line, which was absolutely porous in pass protection, to step up in a big way for Tennessee to reach maximum potential. They also need to beat Georgia and have Georgia drop a game or two.

What Could go Wrong

If Dobbs gets hurt, no other quarterback on the roster has taken even one collegiate snap. There may be another Dobbs story in there, but even a stud would likely drop a game or two while learning the ropes. Keeping Dobbs healthy is priority number one. With as many sacks as Tennessee gave up last year, though, that is a tall order. Tennessee does not get its first divisional test until week 4 when they travel to The Swamp to face off with Florida. The Gators will either be looking for redemption or could be coming off a week of sloppy preparation depending on the outcome of their week 3 match-up with Ole Miss. Tennessee has a fairly forgiving schedule, but that also means there are plenty of sleeper games. If the Volunteers get caught looking ahead and drop a game or two against lesser competition, all chances of going to Atlanta are done.

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Worth Considering

Tennessee’s 17 offensive and defensive returning starters is tied with Vanderbilt for the most in the SEC. While not a reason to worry about Vanderbilt, it is with Tennessee. Tennessee’s opponents saw a team that got stronger as the season wore on last year and were are able to return a ton of those starters.

When a team gels and build chemistry, upsets over more talented teams are much more likely. They will need at least one of those upsets this year to make the trip to Atlanta.

Tennessee drew Alabama and Arkansas out of the SEC West this year. Tennessee and Alabama are well accustomed and Arkansas is not the match-up problem for Tennessee that it is for so many other teams. When compared to other schedules in the SEC, Tennessee does not have it too bad. Their toughest stretch is followed by a bye week and most of their toughest games have “gimme’s” sandwiched in-between.

Still, Tennessee winning more than 9 games is a huge stretch. It could happen. The Volunteers best bet, though, is to upset a couple of the top teams in the East and hope those same teams are the ones that slip up against lesser competition.

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