ESPN experts update bowl predictions for Tennessee ahead of Week 14
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ESPN college football experts Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach revealed their updated bowl predictions on Sunday for just where Tennessee will end up when its regular-season journey comes to an end after this Saturday’s game against rival Vanderbilt.
Tennessee hasn’t quite lived up to expectations in 2025, losing a gut-wrenching early season home game against Georgia in overtime, then losing badly at Alabama in mid-October before a crushing home loss to Oklahoma on Nov. 1 sealed its College Football Playoff fate. Suddenly, the Volunteers had 3 losses, and they were left searching for answers.
After winning their past 2 games, including Saturday night’s blowout victory at Florida, the Vols are 8-3 going into their Week 14 rivalry showdown at home against Vanderbilt (3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). And what about after that?
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Well, Bonagura and Schlabach gave some insight into that exact question on Sunday.
First, Schlabach has Josh Heupel‘s team heading to the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, where he has the Vols taking on Iowa in the New Year’s Eve matchup. The bowl game kicks off at noon ET on ESPN, for those Tennessee fans who want to get the jump on where their team could possibly end up going bowling.
Meanwhile, Bonagura has Tennessee playing its bowl game a few days later on Jan. 2. He has the Vols in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte, and he has them facing Louisville. That bowl game kicks off at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN, so it would be a primetime TV appointment for Tennessee fans on the night after New Year’s Day.
Of course, there’s a lot to be determined in the next few weeks before Vols fans really know where their team is headed this postseason.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
