Volunteer Country

First-Four Schedule Preview

One day away from kickoff, I preview the first month of the Tennessee Volunteers' season as they attempt to replicate their 2022 efforts.

Jonathan Lidskin

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Coming off a 10-2 season with an Orange Bowl victory in the postseason, Tennessee looks to continue its' flight back into college football prominence in year three under Josh Heupel. The Vols were a playoff contender until stumbling late in the season at South Carolina, but all in all, the Vols were better than just about anyone could've expected in Heupel's second season. Now, the schedule gets a little tougher in an odd year, and with some key new pieces on the offense, the Vols will have to rise to the occasion.

Week 1: Tennessee vs. Virginia (In Nashville)

NOON ET, ABC

Tennessee will open its season in an NFL stadium just a couple hours from campus. The Vols will square off with Virginia in a neutral-site game at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. The Cavaliers are in for a tough year two under Tony Elliott, as their win total at 3.5 is higher than only two other Power 5 teams (Stanford and Colorado). Tennessee is currently listed as a 28.5-point favorite in the game, higher than it opened at. Monmouth transfer quarterback Tony Muskett is expected to be the starter. Out wide, the Cavs lost a ton of production at the receiver position, including their top 2 guys in Keytaon Thompson and Dontayvion Wicks. The offense wasn't the only place where Virginia lost talent, though. Fentrell Cypress ll, a top-5 player in the transfer portal according to 247Sports, left Virginia to head to Florida State. However, Virginia should be better defensively than offensively as they will return guys like Chico Bennett Jr. and Aaron Faumui on the defensive line. They could still have a couple of all-conference guys on defense, with Bennett Faumui and Antonio Clary returning. Overall, Virginia does not have the talent to show us how good Tennessee will be this season. The talent level in Charlottesville is closer to G5 teams than Power-5 competition, let alone the SEC. The Vols should roll in the Music City to get to 1-0.

Week 2: Tennessee vs. Austin Peay

5:00 P.M. EST, SECN+

We won't see a line for this one until around the day of the game, but the Vols won't need much prep for this one. Sagarin projects Tennessee to be a favorite by almost 45 points. The Governors finished last season at 7-4 but lost many key players this year. As the climate in college football currently goes, good FCS teams will have players that can transfer up and play at the FBS level. The Govs return their quarterback in Mike DiLiello, who threw for 21 touchdowns and 11 interceptions last season, but also lost three receivers. The Vols should get to rest some starters in this one before their first test of the season the following week.

Week 3: Tennessee at Florida

7:00 P.M. EST, ESPN

Week three against Florida will likely be the toughest challenge in Tennessee's early schedule. The Vols have only won in Gainesville twice since the Cold War ended, and they last won there in 2003. They currently have the longest winless streak in Gainesville of SEC East teams. We'll find out how legit they are when Tennessee goes down there. Thanks to Florida and Utah moving up their week one game, we've already seen the Gators in action, and spoiler alert: it wasn't pretty. On the Gators' first three trips inside the red zone, they came away with just three points. Penalties, execution, it felt like everything went wrong. There's a reason Tennessee has a bad history at Florida. It's a callous place to go win at. I'd approach this one with caution.

Week 4: Tennessee vs. UTSA

Time and Date TBD

There have been people who think UTSA has a shot in this game. Last season, the Roadrunners won Conference USA and finished the season 11-3. This year, they'll get Frank Harris back playing quarterback but lose some key offensive pieces. Zakhari Franklin makes his way over to the SEC after leading UTSA in receiving yards and touchdowns. His monster season will be extremely difficult to replace. Maybe even more important is the loss of the offensive coordinator Will Stein. Stein was the play-caller last year for one of the best offenses in the nation, and now he's on Dan Lanning's staff at Oregon. There are a lot of good football coaches out there, but it is hard to replace a good play-caller, especially at the Power 5 level. I expect this game to be a shootout to an extent, as UTSA's offense will still be good, with Harris taking snaps. However, some regression is probably imminent with losing your top pass catcher and play caller. Let's also remember that UTSA must play Tennessee in an SEC stadium. It's not often they see road crowds that will be that loud and that big. 

Tennessee Volunteers QB Joe Milton III during SEC Media Days on July 20th, 2023, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel of USA Today Sports)

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Jonathan Lidskin
JONATHAN LIDSKIN

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