National analyst from The Athletic predicts how many games the Tennessee Vols will win in 2025

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel made his SEC record predictions this week and he thinks the Tennessee Vols are in for a lackluster season.

Mandel has the Volunteers experiencing what would be Josh Heupel's second-worst season at Tennessee. He has the Vols going 7-5 this fall with a 3-5 record in the SEC.

Tennessee went 7-5 during the regular season in 2021, which was Heupel's first season on Rocky Top (the Vols finished 7-6 that season after suffering a loss to Purdue in the Music City Bowl).

The only teams in the SEC that Mandel has the Vols finishing ahead of are South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Mississippi State, and Kentucky.

Not many folks in the media are giving the Volunteers much of a chance in 2025. They all seem to think that Tennessee won't even be a factor in the College Football Playoff picture.

And maybe that'll be the case -- we'll see how the season plays out over the next couple of months.

Tennessee's players and coaches, however, believe the program can have a special season in 2025. And they're using last season's loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes in the first round of the College Football Playoff as motivation.

“You want to play here in Atlanta and play for a conference championship, win it, and then get in the playoff and go win that thing, too,” said Heupel at SEC Media Days in July. “Everybody inside of our program will tell you that the taste that was left in our mouth in December — make sure everybody understands that’s not the goal. We want to get in it, but you got to go win. And it’s been a part of helping us be challenged every single day throughout the course of the winter, through spring ball, and certainly through the course of the summer.” 

“Everybody inside of our program didn’t like the taste in their mouth as the season finished up in late December,” added Heupel. “That’s been a part of spurring us on throughout each quarter of our offseason. It’s been a part of how intentional and how focused that we’ve been throughout the course of the summer.”

Tennessee kicks off the season on August 30 in Atlanta against Syracuse.