Tennessee has to beat Vanderbilt to avoid hitting historic lows

There’s no sugarcoating it — this Tennessee team is one of the worst that I’ve ever seen. And that includes all the Derek Dooley years.

They rank in the 120s in total offense nationally and currently sit at 0-7 in SEC play. They were just eliminated from bowl competition after a loss to LSU. The only thing the Vols have going for them right now is a coaching search.

So why in the world would you care about a meaningless game against Vanderbilt? For one — Tennessee should beat Vandy ever year. That hasn’t been the case lately, however.

Secondly, Tennessee needs to win this game to avoid become literally (statistically) the worst Vols team of all time. No Tennessee squad has ever gone winless in SEC play. They’ve won one game in conference play five different times, but have never gone winless.

Tennessee has also never suffered an eight loss season in program history. They and Ohio State are the only two programs that can say that. Big picture, that doesn’t mean a whole lot. But I bet these seniors are aware of it.

If the Vols are looking for any sort of motivation, this is it.

For what it’s worth, Vanderbilt has completely fallen apart as of late. Maybe — just maybe — we can end this dreadful season on a high note. That is of course assuming Tennessee has enough healthy bodies to field a team (kidding, sort of).