Bowl Projections: Could Tennessee Land in the Texas Bowl?

We are in peak offseason form right now, but some media outlets are at least giving us some bowl projections to sink our teeth into. The latest is from SEC Country. They are actually one of the first to not have Tennessee land in the Liberty Bowl.

Instead, they have Tennessee heading to Houston for the Texas Bowl. It would be the Volunteers’ first appearance in the bowl. The game has SEC and Big 12 ties and would take one of the 3rd-8th best teams in the SEC.

Tennessee has been all over this 3-8 group over the past few seasons, playing in the TaxSlayer, Outback and Music City Bowl. The Texas, Belk or Liberty bowl each make sense if Tennessee is in that range once again.

SEC Country projects a high profile opponent for Tennessee in the Texas Bowl — the Texas Longhorns. Texas is still in the process of rebuilding to their former days of glory, much like Tennessee. A meeting of these two schools would be a fun battle between two traditional powers.

Here was the excerpt about Tennessee’s potential season.

Tennessee: It’s hard to envision the Vols not taking a step back given the talent they lost this offseason. They’ll have a new quarterback, a reshaped coaching staff and a thin depth chart at the offensive skill and front seven positions. Butch Jones may have missed his best window to win on Rocky Top. A 7-5 season would probably cost him his job, or at the very least put him on paper-thin ice.

Vegas has the Vols at 7.5 wins and virtually every analyst has them in the seven or eight win range, so this projection jives with the current perception of Tennessee football.