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Vols notebook: MacIntyre says playoff hopes rest on winning out

Tennessee Athletics photo by Kate Luffman / Tennessee linebacker Jeremiah Telander was part of a defense that played well for a majority of Saturday's 27-24 setback at South Carolina, but the Volunteers started slow and couldn't close out the Gamecocks.
Tennessee Athletics photo by Kate Luffman / Tennessee linebacker Jeremiah Telander was part of a defense that played well for a majority of Saturday's 27-24 setback at South Carolina, but the Volunteers started slow and couldn't close out the Gamecocks. Tennessee Athletics photo by Kate Luffman / Tennessee linebacker Jeremiah Telander was part of a defense that played well for a majority of Saturday's 27-24 setback at South Carolina, but the Volunteers started slow and couldn't close out the Gamecocks.

By David Paschall 3 min read

When Tennessee made its first trip to the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2024, the Volunteers did so with a 10-2 regular-season record.

They didn’t suffer their second loss two years ago until the 10th game at Georgia, closing out with wins over UTEP and Vanderbilt. This year’s team suffered its second setback with Saturday’s 27-24 loss at South Carolina, and there are no UTEPs left on the schedule, only the Southeastern Conference likes of Kentucky, Texas A&M, LSU and Vanderbilt.

“Obviously we know we have to win out, and we’ve got some tough teams coming up,” Tennessee sophomore quarterback George MacIntyre said Saturday night in a news conference. “We all saw it tonight and in prior weeks in the SEC. It’s a week-to-week league.

“We’ll get a lot of stuff cleaned up in the bye week, and I think we’ll be ready to play.”

Former Vols coach Johnny Majors was fond of saying, “They remember what you do in November.” Tennessee has not posted an undefeated November since 2019, when Jeremy Pruitt’s second team swept UAB, Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt.