Where Is Deshaun Watson Playing Next Season?
With the college football off-season still moving along one day at a time, many are already having fun with some way-too-early predictions for next season.
On Friday afternoon, CBS Sports analyst Barrett Sallee posted his own way-too-early SEC standings and put Tennessee in a very favorable position.
In his SEC East list, Sallee is projecting Tennessee to finish second behind the Georgia Bulldogs.
While there aren’t any corresponding record projections to go along with the list, it does highlight the success that many are expecting Tennessee to have.
CBS Sports analyst Barrett Sallee’s SEC East list is as follows
- Georgia
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- Florida
- South Carolina
- Missouri
- Vanderbilt
Way-too-early 2022 SEC predictions (subject to many, many changes)https://t.co/bivtXIFiJE pic.twitter.com/42uhLOtmlf
— Barrett Sallee 🇺🇸 (@BarrettSallee) February 18, 2022
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After a gritty debut season under Heupel and his staff, the Tennessee football team finished at 7-6. The Vols’ highlight win came on the road in Lexington when they took down No. 18 Kentucky on a cold November night. Then, despite making it to their second bowl game in the last five seasons, Tennessee lost a heartbreaker to Purdue in overtime of the Music City Bowl.
The SEC East’s 2021 final standings were as follows:
- Georgia (14-1, 8-0 SEC)
- Kentucky (10-3, 5-3 SEC)
- Tennessee (7-6, 4-4 SEC)
- Missouri (6-7, 3-5 SEC)
- South Carolina (7-6, 3-5 SEC)
- Florida (6-7, 2-6 SEC)
- Vanderbilt (2-10, 0-8 SEC)
Among the seven teams in the SEC East in 2021, Tennessee had the second-most points scored at 511, only trailing Georgia’s 579. The next closest was Kentucky, who wasn’t even too close, at 420 points scored.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Vols ended the season just below the middle of the SEC East pack. Georgia had the fewest points allowed at 153, followed by Kentucky’s 282, South Carolina’s 312, and Florida’s 348. Then comes Tennessee at the fifth spot with 378 points allowed on the year.
Jumping ahead to the 2022 season, though, Tennessee does have some favorable draws. Thanks to the excitement that was built inside of the program last season, Neyland Stadium is expected to be rocking in 2022, and the Vols will need it to be. Tennessee will host Florida on Sep. 24, Alabama on Oct. 15, Kentucky on Oct. 29, and Missouri on Nov. 12. Tennessee will be looking to surely pick up three wins among those four teams if they want to step up to that second-ranking in the Eastern standings.
Tennessee Football 2022 Schedule:
- Saturday, Sep. 3 – Ball State @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Sep. 10 – Tennessee @ Pittsburgh
- Saturday, Sep. 17 – Akron @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Sep. 24 – Florida @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Oct. 1 – BYE
- Saturday, Oct. 8 – Tennessee @ LSU
- Saturday, Oct. 15 – Alabama @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Oct. 22 – UT Martin @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Oct. 29 – Kentucky @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Nov. 5 – Tennessee @ Georgia
- Saturday, Nov. 12 – Missouri @ Tennessee
- Saturday, Nov. 19 – Tennessee @ South Carolina
- Saturday, Nov. 26 – Tennessee @ Vanderbilt
- Saturday, Dec. 3 – SEC Championship
