Did you know the Tennessee Volunteers have won six consecutive Florida bowl games?
Impressive, right? Yet it’s not exactly a stat Tennessee is seeking to extend later this season after earning a bid to the inaugural 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff last year.
The 2024 season’s CFP may not have offered the exact template to follow annually, but every Southeastern Conference team with two or fewer regular-season losses qualified, while those with three or more losses were stung by the exclusion. Tennessee pounded out a 10-2 regular season a year ago behind Dylan Sampson’s single-season rushing mark and a stingy defense, but the Vols endured their second setback of 2025 with their 37-20 loss Saturday night at Alabama.
“We’ve just got to be us,” Tennessee redshirt sophomore running back DeSean Bishop said inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. “If you look at our two losses, there have been a lot of chances and a lot of self-inflicted wounds. That’s not discrediting anything other teams are doing, but we’re making these games a lot harder than they should be, honestly.
“In this league, the margin is very small. Every team is good, no matter what their record says.”
The Vols are 5-2 overall and 2-2 in SEC play as they transition from an 11th straight defeat in Tuscaloosa to this Saturday night’s visit to Kentucky (7:45 on the SEC Network). Tennessee dropped from No. 11 to No. 17 in Sunday afternoon’s Associated Press poll, but the Vols would be a lock for another CFP invitation at 10-2.
Tennessee’s two losses are to current No. 5 Georgia and No. 4 Alabama, and the Vols get to host No. 13 Oklahoma and No. 10 Vanderbilt in this stretch run. Going 4-1 from here on out and splitting against the Sooners and Commodores would have the Vols in the conversation at 9-3, but Alabama, Ole Miss and South Carolina learned last season that 9-3 is not where you want to be come selection time.
Of course, assuming anything in college football this year has proven to be mostly futile, especially after a weekend in which Miami, Texas Tech and Memphis went down, and that’s why nobody can assume a Tennessee win at Florida. That hasn’t happened since 2003.
“We’ll show up tomorrow and we’ll show up Monday, fix the mistakes, and then we’ve got to flush it,” Vols junior linebacker Jeremiah Telander said. “We play in the SEC, so every single week is going to be a battle. We’ve just got to go 1-0 each and every week.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get that done this week.”
Next season will mark the 20-year anniversary of when Tennessee last swept Alabama and Georgia. Due to the SEC’s new scheduling format, the Vols and Bulldogs aren’t scheduled to meet in 2026.
The Vols have been swept by the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs 12 times in the last 16 seasons, including this one.
Some Tennessee tidbits: Joey Aguilar has done way more right than wrong for the Vols through seven games, but his six interceptions are the most for a Tennessee quarterback in any season under fifth-year head coach Josh Heupel. … Redshirt junior punter Jackson Ross averaged 46.3 yards on three attempts Saturday night, placing all three inside the 15-yard line and one at the 1. … The Alabama-Tennessee series was tied 23-23-7 after the Vols won the 1970 meeting 24-0, but the Crimson Tide now lead 61-40-7. … Aguilar has surpassed 200 passing yards in all 31 of his FBS starts, with 24 of those for Appalachian State.
Kentucky has lost nine consecutive SEC games dating to last season, and Saturday night was the most painful one yet.
Despite posting a 26-8 advantage in first downs and a 395-179 advantage in total yards, the Wildcats fell 16-13 in overtime to Texas in Lexington.
“This was a very difficult loss,” Kentucky 13th-year coach Mark Stoops said. “I greatly appreciate what they’ve invested this entire year, and in particular the last couple of weeks, to improve in a tough situation. Let’s be honest, when you’re losing, it’s easy to submit and give in, and none of these guys do that.”
Stoops is the winningest football coach in program history, but the Wildcats’ 2-4 overall record and 0-4 league mark was not the bounce-back season he was seeking after last year’s team went 4-8 and 1-7. He sounded like someone Saturday night who knows that time is running out.
“I also want to thank our fans who have supported us in some tough times,” Stoops said. “I understand the position I’ve put people in as far as making a decision, and that’s on me, but I greatly appreciate the support for our players. They deserved an atmosphere like that.”
Ole Miss entered the fourth quarter at Georgia with a 35-26 lead and on the cusp of finally earning that elusive road win over a ranked SEC team for sixth-year coach Lane Kiffin.
“I told our guys, ‘This is exactly what you could want, you know?'” Kiffin said afterward. “‘You’re in the fourth quarter, and you’re up two scores at Georgia with chance to beat them two years in a row.'”
It would not come to fruition for the Rebels, who were overwhelmed 17-0 in the final 15 minutes by Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs in Georgia’s 43-35 victory. Georgia outgained Ole Miss 143-13 in the fourth quarter and possessed the ball for 13 minutes and four seconds.
“I’ve always felt like we’ve had good fourth-quarter teams,” Smart said. “We’ve always been a really good, physical, win-the-game-in-the-fourth-quarter team. We’ve just had so many leads in the fourth quarter because we’ve been better than everybody else. Our margins are smaller now. The margins are tight everywhere. I mean, go look at these scores all over the league.
“We’ve got two NFL coaches on our staff, and they say this is every week in the NFL. I’m not talking about the NFL in terms of talent. I’m talking about the way the games go.”
Georgia improved to 8-0 against AP top-10 teams in Sanford Stadium under Smart.
Florida became the second SEC team this season to make a coaching change, announcing Sunday that Billy Napier was out after a 3-4 start to his fourth season and that receivers coach Billy Gonzales will coach the rest of the way in an interim role.
Napier is the fourth Gators coach in a dozen years to have his status determined during the regular season.
— In 2104, Florida announced Will Muschamp’s departure effective at season’s end, allowing him to coach the final two games.
— In 2017, Jim McElwain was fired the day after a 42-7 loss to Georgia in Jacksonville.
— In 2021, Florida announced Dan Mullen’s departure but gave him the option to coach the regular-season finale, which he declined.
— On Sunday, the former Murray County High School quarterback was relieved of his duties 13 days before Florida faces Georgia.
“I think I’m built for it. I’m made for it,” an emotional Napier said when asked about his future after Saturday’s 23-21 topping of Mississippi State. “I chose the coaching profession, and the good comes with the bad, and the bad comes with the good. The game is about the players, and I’m proud of the players and the way they played.
“I’m never going to make everybody happy, and when you’re in charge, these are some of the things that come with it, but I love the game of football. I love the game.”
Napier and former Arkansas coach Sam Pittman, who was fired in late September, would top any SEC coaching ranking in the “good ol’ boy” department, and each was very well-liked. Unfortunately, they were also a combined 54-57 at their respective league institutions.
Auburn’s spiraling continued with Saturday night’s 23-17 home loss to Missouri in double overtime.
The Tigers are now 14-18 under third-year coach Hugh Freeze, which includes a 5-15 record in conference contests and a 2-8 mark in one-possession games. Freeze has the worst record of any Auburn coach through 32 games since the 1940s.
“We fit what Auburn is all about, but Auburn is also about winning football,” Freeze said late Saturday night. “We’ve changed the talent level here, but at some point you have to win football games. I know we’re close, and I know we’re going to get over the hump.
“We’re close. I know people are tired of hearing that. I’m tired of saying it.”
For most of Vanderbilt’s existence in the SEC, stacking enough wins for bowl eligibility was the chief objective.
The Commodores got their sixth victory Saturday with a 31-24 triumph over LSU in Nashville, and the topic of bowl eligibility afterward almost brought coach Clark Lea to laughter. Vanderbilt is not only eligible but ranked among the nation’s top 10 for the first time since the 1947 Commodores started 3-0.
“We have higher goals,” Lea said. “I don’t want to sound like I’m not excited about the fact we’ve secured a postseason bid, but we’re really interested in taking this thing as far as we can.”
LSU was No. 10 last week, which gave Vanderbilt the opportunity to improve to 7-125 all-time against AP top-10 teams.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.