Tennessee Football: 4 Bold Predictions for the Rest of the Vols' 2016 Season

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Sep 17, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; The Tennessee Volunteers celebrate after the game against the Ohio Bobcats at Neyland Stadium. Tennessee won 28-19. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Tennessee football returns from its bye week with all of its goals still possible. Here are four predictions for the rest of the Volunteers’ 2016 season.

Coming off of a necessary bye week, which followed the most brutal four-game stretch in program history, Tennessee football is set for its end-of-season stretch run. And the Vols desperately need a few easy games.

Butch Jones’s team expects to win out. They hope that in the process other chips fall their way.

Based on the wealth of material that we’ve gained from the first part of the Vols’ season, though, there are a few things we can predict will happen down the stretch.

Obviously, as we make these predictions, there are a few pointers worth noting. For starters, health is a big factor.

Tennessee was able to use the off-week to get many guys back to full strength after playing so banged up against the Tide two weeks ago.

Also, leadership is a big thing. We know about Joshua Dobbs, but other guys have gotten more vocal and stepped up in place of injured starters.

And finally, the depth is a factor. Sure, the Vols are finally getting healthy, but injuries happen throughout the year. So more are inevitable to come.

We also have a few records we could get to by the end of the year, which we will touch on in this post.

Some of our calls will also be stepping out on a limb. But all of them are genuine.

Here are four bold predictions for the rest of the Tennessee football 2016 season.

Oct 1, 2016; Athens, GA, USA; Tennessee Volunteers defensive end Derek Barnett (9) hits Georgia Bulldogs quarterback Jacob Eason (10) causing a fumble recovered by Tennessee for a touchdown during the fourth quarter at Sanford Stadium. Tennessee defeated Georgia 34-31. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

4. Derek Barnett will break Reggie White’s Tennessee football career sacks record.

Going into the year, Derek Barnett had 20 sacks and needed 12 to tie Reggie White’s school record of 32 career sacks. Through the first three games, though, the junior defensive end did not pick up a sack.

However, as he always does, he saved his best performances for the biggest moments. Over the next two weeks against the Florida Gators and Georgia Bulldogs, Barnett registered two sacks both times. He forced a fumble against Georgia that resulted in a Tennessee defensive touchdown as well.

Barnett then got a sack against the Texas A&M Aggies and another strip sack against the Alabama Crimson Tide. So at this point on the year, he already has six sacks through four SEC games.

And there’s a lot of football left to play.

So while getting six more sacks is a tough task, we are going out on a limb and saying that Barnett will do it. After all, on top of the final five games, he’s almost certainly got a bowl game and potentially has the SEC Championship game as other opportunities. Considering there are four SEC games left, all of which come against teams with terrible offensive lines, he could shatter single-season records as well.

But for right now, we’re just predicting that Barnett will break White’s sacks record without even needing a full four years of college to do it.

And his play will be a huge reason for the other things we predict will happen on this list.

3. The Vols will get back into the Top 10.

After starting the preseason off at No. 9 and then having to move back up to No. 9 following early struggles, Tennessee football dropped to No. 18 once its two-game losing streak happened. Now, it is No. 18 in both polls.

There are 11 games between now and the end of the regular season where the teams playing each other are currently ranked higher than the Vols. Three of those games are happening this weekend.

And that doesn’t take into account all the tough games those teams have against teams that aren’t in that ranking.

Simply put, there are quite a few losses still out there to happen. And that will slowly clear the road for Tennessee football to creep back into the Top 10.

With the way things shake out, they could be flirting with the Top 5 before it is all said and done. This is exactly what happened back in 2003 after Tennessee had a two game losing streak, a terrible loss to Georgia, and then won out. They got as high as No. 6 before losing the Peach Bowl.

The same thing happened last year. The Vols fell out of the Top 25 early, but as the season went on, they slowly crept closer. And once the bowl game happened, they finished the year back in the Top 25 at 9-4.

This year, it will be the Top 10, not the Top 25, a sign that the program truly is back. But getting back into the Top 10 requires them to accomplish something specific. That takes us to our next bold prediction here.

Oct 15, 2016; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Butch Jones runs on to the field before the game against the Alabama Crimson Tide at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

2. Tennessee Football will win out.

Yes, this will happen. Let’s start with the fact that it better happen for Butch Jones’s sake. Vols fans everywhere circled eight wins on the year with the four game-stretch they just came out of set to define the season.

The final five are cupcakes, which is exactly what everybody projected at the beginning of the year. They are the bottom tier of the SEC along with an FCS team, and only one of them has a legitimate shot to make a bowl game this year.

So winning out has to happen. And now, to speak in Jones’s favor, we are predicting that it will happen.

Jones has done an amazing job at running the table throughout his career. He’s made a habit of winning the games he is supposed to win, and that has not changed since he has arrived in Knoxville.

In fact, the Vols have only lost two games during his four years in which they were the favorite. One was a one-point loss at home to the Florida Gators and the other was a four-point loss at home last year to the Arkansas Razorbacks.

In both cases, the teams were basically on even playing field. However, he’s never lost to a team at a level inferior to his program since he arrived in Knoxville.

And every team left on the schedule is far inferior to the Vols when it comes to talent. So Jones’s team will come through again and run the table to finish 10-2. Fortunately for them, we are predicting that will mean one more thing.

Dec 5, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; General view of an SEC pylon prior to the 2015 SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

1. Tennessee meets Alabama for a rematch in the SEC Championship.

It’s the game we’ve been waiting to see ever since the conference split into two divisions in 1992. The idea then was that SEC’s the two winningest programs, Tennessee and Alabama, would be regular opponents in the title game.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t yet happened. When the Vols were in their prime, Alabama was down. And once Alabama reached its prime again, Tennessee football fell off the map.

So while Tennessee has gone to the title game five times and Alabama has gone 10 times. That’s 15 appearances between them out of 24 title games. Yet they’ve never been able to meet up.

However, this year, that changes. While Tennessee wins out, Florida is bound to lose one of the three to the Georgia Bulldogs, Arkansas Razorbacks, or LSU Tigers.

That will propel the Vols into the SEC Championship game. Meanwhile, the Alabama Crimson Tide are likely to get to the game now with their win over the Texas A&M Aggies. Provided they get past the LSU Tigers and Auburn Tigers, the SEC West is there’s.

So when December comes, Tennessee and Alabama will be meeting once again. The Vols will likely lose, again, but they will be in much better position this time as they’ll be much healthier.

And perhaps they could exact revenge on Nick Saban after what he did to Tennessee back in 2001, ruining their national championship season.

But even if they lose, at least they’ll be back in the title game. That’s our boldest prediction.