How the Vols' future opponents did this week: Post-Bye

The Vols were off this weekend, so nothing happened apart from Vincent Dallas and Alan Posey leaving the team. I wish those guys the best. No offense to them, but their departure doesn't have any impact on my projections for the team, either in the long run or for the remainder of this season.

So let's look at how our future opponents did this weekend.

South Carolina (5-1, 3-1 SEC, #14)

• Week 1: Beat North Carolina, 27-10.
• Week 2: Lost at Georgia, 41-30.
• Week 3: Beat Vanderbilt, 35-25.
• Week 4: Off.
• Week 5: Squeaked by UCF, 28-25.
• Week 6: Beat Kentucky, 35-28.
• Week 7: Thumped Arkansas, 52-7.

• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: WORSE? Here's the thing. I ran the numbers on the statsy preview machine last week, and it came up with a relatively comfortable win for the Vols, regardless of whether I looked at it from the perspective of the Vols or that of the Gamecocks. I haven't looked at it yet this week, so maybe it's reverted to predicting a Tennessee loss, but what am I going to do if it tells me to expect a Vols win? Probably, I'll conclude that it's wrong and predict a win for South Carolina anyway. After all, it missed on both sides for the Gamecocks-Razorbacks. (It did get close on all yards predictions with the exception of Arkansas' passing yards, where it was waaaaay off, but so was Arkansas from their average.) And yet . . . look at their resume to date. Beat North Carolina (NR, 1-4), Vandy (NR, 3-3), UCF (NR, 4-1, but if you can't name the conference without looking it up, does it count?), Kentucky (NR, 1-5), and Arkansas (NR, 3-4). So their wins are over opponents with a collective record of 8-16, not including UCF. Yeah, our record is similar to that of SoCar's opponents so far, so what does all of that mean? I don't know, to be honest. So right now, I'm just going with WORSE? Probably a LOSS, but stay tuned this week as all of us here at RTT break it down further.

Alabama Crimson Tide (6-0, 3-0 SEC, #1)

• Week 1: Roasted the Hokies, 35-10.
• Week 2: Decided that they needed a break after one game. Or decided that they wanted to stockpile arms and diagram particularly mischievious and devious methods of embarrassment for that Johnny Football guy.
• Week 3: Beat #6 Texas A&M, 49-42.
• Week 4: Beat Colorado State, 31-6.
• Week 5: Beat Ole Miss, 25-0.
• Week 6: Beat Georgia State, 45-3.
• Week 7: Beat Kentucky, 48-7.

• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: SAME. LOSS.

@Missouri Tigers (6-0, 2-0 SEC, NR)

• Week1: Beat the Murray St. Racers (zoom!), 58-14.
• Week 2: Beat Toledo (poor Toledo), 38-23.
• Week 3: Off. What's with everyone taking a break almost as soon as the season begins?
• Week 4: Beat Indiana, 45-28.
• Week 5: Beat Arkansas State, 41-19. Play an SEC game already, won't you, Missouri?
• Week 6: Beat Vandy, 51-28.
• Week 7: Beat Georgia, 41-26.

• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: WORSE, THEN BETTER, SO SAME. I've been waiting all year for Missouri to play somebody, and this week they did and they won. Undefeated after seven weeks and 2-0 in the SEC is good, especially if one of those wins comes over a national title contender. On the other hand, Georgia has been decimated. I think we probably started to see some of the Bulldogs' early season strength-of-schedule catch up to them last week against the Vols, and this week they just crashed. No disrespect to Missouri. Even with all of that, it's a huge win for the Tigers. But then they lost their senior QB, and he's going to be out for our game, which makes them a completely different team. So, worse, but then better, so the SAME. WIN.

Auburn Tigers (5-1, 2-1 SEC, NR)

• Week 1: Beat Washington State, 31-24.
• Week 2: Beat the Arkansas State Red Wolves, 38-9.
• Week 3: Beat Mississippi State, 24-20.
• Week 4: Lost to LSU, 35-21. Does anyone else find it simply astonishing that Les Miles string more players into a team than he can words into a coherent sentence? I know that's not breaking news or anything, but he somehow continues to reach new heights of huh. Anyway . . .
• Week 5: Off.
• Week 6: Beat Ole Miss, 30-22.
• Week 7: Beat Western Carolina, 62-3.
• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: SAME. I changed this from a preseason prediction of Win to Loss two weeks ago, and I'm keeping them there.

Vanderbilt Commodores (3-3, 0-3 SEC, NR)

• Week 1: Lost to Ole Miss, 39-35.
• Week 2: Beat Austin-Peay, 38-3.
• Week 3: Lost to South Carolina, 35-25.
• Week 4: Beat UMass, 24-7.
• Week 5: Beat UAB, 52-24.
• Week 6: Lost to Missouri, 51-28.
• Week 7: Off.
• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: SAME. WIN.

@Kentucky Wildcats (1-5, 0-3 SEC, NR)

• Week 1: Lost to Western Kentucky, 35-26.
• Week 2: Beat Miami of Ohio, 41-7.
• Week 3: Lost to Louisville, 27-13.
• Week 4: Off.
• Week 5: Lost to Florida, 24-7.
• Week 6: Lost to South Carolina, 35-28.
• Week 7: Lost to Alabama, 48-7.
• Joel feels __________ about this game this week: SAME. WIN.

Conclusion after Week Seven

Things changed this week when Missouri beat Georgia, but then they changed again when we learned that Tigers quarterback James Franklin is going to be out six weeks with a shoulder separation. I would have changed the Missouri prediction to a loss had he not gotten hurt, but because he did, I'm leaving it a win. So the current prediction is still one game different from preseason thanks to Auburn. Guessing 6-6 with remaining losses to South Carolina (but we have a shot in this one), Alabama, and Auburn.