Randy Smith: Could Vols Be The SEC's Biggest Surprise?

Now that the SEC Media Days for 2018 has come and gone, it appears most members of the league's media are sold on an Alabama-Georgia match up in the SEC Championship Game. When you consider the lack of success they've had in picking the two actual teams to meet for the title in the last twenty years, it could be the proverbial " kiss of death " for at least one of those teams. A good example is the 2017 media poll. The league's scribes chose Georgia and Alabama and it was Georgia clobbering Auburn for a shot in the College Football Playoffs.

In the most recent version of the SEC media poll, Tennessee received one first place vote. One person feels the Vols will win the SEC East. The rest of the ballots cast chose Georgia, with Tennessee finishing sixth oft he seven teams. Only Vanderbilt was tabbed lower than Tennessee, even though the Commodores have beaten the Vols two years in a row and have also posted wins in three of the last five meetings. While most of the other media pundits are trying to figure out who cast the one vote for Tennessee and have his head examined, others are just writing it off as a token vote for new head coach Jeremy Pruitt. 

Despite the fact that some people feel it was yours truly who cast that one vote, I am basically retired and was no where near Atlanta when the ballots were cast. It wasn't me. I have already gone on record that 6-6 would be a huge improvement for Tennessee after a program low, 4-8 mark of one year ago. While I feel a bit better about the Vols' chances with each passing day, there is no way they can win the SEC East. They have done a good job bringing in some better players from the JUCO ranks and they did have some talent in camp. In other words, I would not want to face Tennessee in the opening game of the year. There is too much of an unknown factor with a new head coach, new staff, some new players and new schemes on both sides of the football. to feel very comfortable at all. West Virginia has that chore when they face the Volunteers in Charlotte to open the 2018 campaign on September 1st. The Mountaineers are a good solid team, but I'm not so sure they're good enough to win against a team with that many unknowns.

I'm not ready to pick Tennessee to upset West Virginia just yet. Mountaineer quarterback Will Grier will be tough to handle.  The former Florida Gator quarterback who struggled so much under Jim McElwain has found great success at West Virginia under Dana Holgorsen. In fact, there are some who feel Grier is among the very best returning signal callers in college football. There is one report in 247Sports that lists the top ten best shots at an upset in the first month of the season, and the Tennessee-West Virginia contest is the very first one listed. As of today, the Volunteers are a 9.5 point underdog, but reporter Brad Crawford isn't buying it.  As bad as they've been in recent years, the Vols haven't lost a season opener since a 27-24 overtime loss at UCLA in 2008; Phillip Fulmer's last season as head coach. I'll have to have a few more weeks of thinking about it before I make my actual prediction. Maybe I could find out who cast that one first place vote for Tennessee. Maybe he knows something the rest of us don't.