SportsLine senior analyst sees ‘value’ in Tennessee winning under 5.5 games
By SDS Staff
Published:
Will the Tennessee Volunteers miss on another bowl game in 2018?
Tennessee’s over/under projection is set at 5.5 games by Vegas, and Josh Nagel, senior analyst at SportsLine, sees value in the under. New head coach Jeremy Pruitt certainly has his work cut out for him, but assuming the Vols improve as the season progresses, the wins are there to hit the over and notch another bowl appearance.
Here’s Nagel’s projection for the Vols this season:
After an eventful coaching search, the Volunteers eventually found a match in Jeremy Pruitt, the former defensive coordinator at Georgia and Alabama. Pruitt reportedly is taking a “back-to-basics” approach with a program that lacked such fundamentals amid a miserable 4-8 campaign last year. His objective will be to bring toughness and discipline back on defense, while also reviving an offense that fell apart in 2017. Three soft nonconference games should go in the win column but, unless the Volunteers sweep the back-end of their SEC slate against lower-tier opponents, getting to six wins feels a bit ambitious in Pruitt’s first year as a head coach. I like the value of the Under.
Tennessee had three straight losing seasons from 2011-13, finishing 5-7 all three years. The last year belonged to Butch Jones, while the other two belonged to Derek Dooley. Of course, Jeremy Pruitt was brought in to change the direction of the program after Tennessee finished 4-8 last season.
Three of the four non-conference games against West Virginia, ETSU, UTEP and Charlotte should be wins. Finding three more wins is where Nagel has a problem. However, Florida, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt are all winnable games, and winning three of those five is certainly doable.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
