Six Days 'Til: Six Reasons Tennessee Will Finish as a Top Six SEC Team

Tennessee Football is now six days away from kicking off the 2022 season. The Vols will welcome Ball State to the renovated Neyland Stadium on Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. ET to begin year two of the Josh Heupel era.

Like I mentioned yesterday in my 'Seven Days 'Til,' there's a lot of excitement building around Tennessee Football this season. But even though the hype is through the roof and expectations and excitations are high, the Preseason AP Poll tabbed Tennessee as the seventh best team in the SEC, putting them outside the Top 25 in the process.

The top six SEC teams received a spot in the poll, with Alabama leading the way at No. 1. No. 3 Georgia and No. 6 Texas A&M come in not too far behind, while the trio of Arkansas, Kentucky and Ole Miss finish out the SEC's representation in the poll at No.'s 19, 20 and 21.

Tennessee did finish 26th in voting, meaning they have a reasonably good chance to enter Week 2 ranked after blowing out Ball State, and there's a strong chance UT will be a Top-25 team if they can beat Pitt in Week 2.

But that's not what this article is about.

In continuing my "[Blank] Days 'Til" theme until next Thursday, today I look at six reasons the Vols will prove the preseason AP Poll wrong and finish as a top-six team in the conference.

The QB-WR Connection

These reasons are in no particular order, and a few of them go hand-in-hand with one another, but the one that came into my brain first is the fact that Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman are on the Vols roster, not on anyone else's, which is a really good thing for Tennessee.

In comparing Tennessee to Ole Miss, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas A&M–the four teams ranked in the preseason poll that the Vols have a shot at finishing the season ahead of–UT has the best QB and WR connection.

Hendon Hooker will likely grow leaps and bounds from what was already a highly efficient 2021 campaign. Another year in the system and the first full offseason knowing you are the starter is a big deal, and it's helpful when you can continue to further develop your connection with your top wideout.

Hooker is a dark-horse Heisman candidate, and Cedric Tillman is one of the top wideouts in the conference, if not the country.

The talent is clear, and the Hooker-Tillman connection arguably gives the Big Orange a leg up on the rest of the SEC teams not named Alabama. It's the top reason Tennessee will finish the season as a top-six SEC team because the other squads that are in the glut of the 7-5 – 10-2 range don't have it.

It's why Tennessee will finish the season as a top-six SEC team.

Offensive Firepower

While Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman are the clear stars of Tennessee's offense, the Vols have plenty of talent elsewhere on that side of the ball.

With the latest news that USC transfer wide receiver Bru McCoy is officially eligible, the Vols have a stout WR corps with Tillman, McCoy, Jalin Hyatt, freshman Squirrel White and Ramel Keyton. The senior tight end duo of Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant is far from lackluster. While the running backs are shallow, there is great upside with Jabari Small, Jaylen Wright, and the pair of freshmen in Justin Williams-Thomas and Dylan Sampson.

There's a lot of firepower on this offense that will be incredibly difficult to contain. Tennessee was seventh in the nation last season with 37.9 points per game, and that figure will likely go up this season.

A top-five national offense should be able to carry Tennessee to a top-six SEC finish.

Health

Tennessee has been banged up during the spring and here and there with some role players, but no key players figure to begin the season watching from the sidelines without pads.

Being healthy is the case for most teams this time of year, but the Vols have recently seen their secondary grow leaps and bounds health-wise since the start of the offseason.

We'll see if the offensive line and running back room can hold up a little better than they did in 2021, but Tennessee is in a favorable spot for now.

SEC West Gauntlet

Another reason Tennessee will finish the season better than seventh in the SEC is pretty straightforward.

The SEC West is a gauntlet full of seven teams that will beat up on one another.

Luckily for Tennessee, playing in the SEC East is much more manageable, especially with a lesser Florida team this year. Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M will all face each other, along with Alabama, Mississippi State, Auburn and LSU. Outside of Alabama, most of those matchups will be tough outs for the ranked A&M, Ole Miss and Arkansas.

Meanwhile, while tough for Tennessee, their schedule is not as bad as the SEC West teams who made the preseason poll.

Schedule

In piggybacking off the point above, Tennessee's schedule is not too daunting. There's the fair share of tough tests, but the big thing for the Vols' 2022 slate is that they get Alabama, Florida and Kentucky at home. This bodes well for the Vols' chances against the Tide, and a rocking Neyland Stadium environment will give the Big Orange an advantage over the SEC East foes.

Two toss-ups on Tennessee's schedule are Pitt and LSU, but there are four guaranteed wins against Vanderbilt, Ball State, Akron and UT Martin, with Missouri a likely win.

There's a chance the Vols can finish the season 10-2, and the floor should be 8-4. 8-4 was sixth-best in the SEC last year, and there's no reason to think that it shouldn't be good enough to be top six this year with the way these teams could beat up on each other.

Coaching

Another reason Tennessee will finish in the top six in the conference is that Josh Heupel is the head coach.

Heupel worked wonders with a depleted Tennessee roster last season and figures to make the UT offense even better in year two.

Heupel was the co-winner of the Steve Spurrier First-Year Head Coach Award in 2021 and arguably led the most dangerous offense in the East. The sky's the limit for Tennessee's offense. Granted, the defense is a different story. Still, overall, Heupel is building a tremendous culture on Rocky Top and has made a fast and dangerous offense that can catapult the Vols into finishing as a top-six SEC team in 2022.