Tennessee Vols land on daunting list from sports media outlet

The Tennessee Vols are 4-1 as they approach the halfway mark of the 2023 college football season. 

Tennessee's early season loss to the Florida Gators put a damper on UT's goal of winning the SEC East. But that goal, though more difficult to reach now because of that loss to Florida, is still very much attainable for the Vols. 

But for Tennessee to reach that goal, they'll likely need to win out the rest of the season. 

And that won't be easy. 

In fact, it will be downright hard. 

247Sports pointed out this week that Tennessee has the fifth hardest schedule in college football for the rest of the season. 

From 247Sports: Remaining schedule: Texas A&M, at Alabama, at Kentucky, UConn, at Missouri, Georgia, Vanderbilt

Do we know the real Tennessee yet? Sans the faceplant in Gainesville, the Volunteers have out-talented their opponents at 4-1 overall and ranked inside the top 25. Now, four of Tennessee's final six SEC contests are against teams with one loss or fewer currently, making this the league's toughest slate remaining. One way to look at this is that Tennessee could play massive spoiler down the stretch with opportunities against Alabama and Georgia. And if the Volunteers beat Texas A&M this weekend, they remain one game back of the Bulldogs in the divisional race.

According to 247Sports' list, the Vols have the hardest remaining schedule in the SEC. 

Tennessee obviously plans to win out. They expect to win every game remaining on their schedule. But if they don't, it's more than understandable. Winning in the SEC from week to week is incredibly difficult. I know the narrative is that the SEC is "down" this season, but that's a dangerous narrative that will almost certainly prove to be untrue by the end of the season. 

The NCAA transfer portal has closed the gap a bit between the SEC and other conferences. But the best talent in the nation still resides in the SEC.