With just about a week until the start of the Vols’ 2023 football season, bowl projections have been rolling in constantly from various publications.
RTI looked at three bowl projections earlier in the week from Action Network, CBS Sports, and On3 Sports, in which all three publications predicted a spot in the Cheeze-It Citrus Bowl against Wisconsin.
The Cheeze-It Citrus Bowl will take place on January 1 at 1:00 p.m. ET in Orlando, Florida’s Camping World Stadium.
ESPN put their predictions into the hat on Wednesday morning, with one prediction the same and one different – although, still similar.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura also sees Tennessee landing in the Cheeze-It Bowl against Wisconsin. Mark Schlabach, on the other hand, is predicting Tennessee in the ReliaQuest Bowl against North Carolina in Tampa, Florida’s Raymond James Stadium.
The ReliaQuest Bowl will take place at noon on January 1.
Mississippi State (9-4, 4-4 SEC 2022) defeated Illinois by a score of 19 to 10 in last year’s ReliaQuest Bowl.
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As evidenced by the five predictions, if Tennessee does not get a bid for a New Year’s Six game, most are predicting Tennessee to land in the Sunshine State for a second straight year.
The key to Tennessee’s season is going to be the mid-tier opponents. The Vols will have to take on Alabama on the road and will host Georgia in the penultimate game of the regular season. Say Tennessee loses those two games and still goes 10-2. That’s a record that could see Tennessee once again pushing for a spot in the New Year’s Six slate depending on how the other teams in the conference shake out. But that scenario also implies wins against Texas A&M, at Kentucky, vs South Carolina, vs UTSA, and at Florida.
The Vols handled business against teams such as Pittsburgh, Florida, LSU, and Kentucky last season, which propelled Tennessee to an Orange Bowl appearance despite a two-loss season.
Tennessee will kick off the season on September 2nd against Virginia in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
One Response
Keep posting this bulletin board crap please! Didrespect Tennessee all you can now, because you will be eating your own egos by seasons end! Go ahead, keep it up!