Not gonna lie, I vastly underestimated Missouri and Kentucky and probably Vandy in preseason, and I also seriously underestimated how big of a hole we were in (after all--we've only had one losing season in the last four. The cupboard can't be *that* bare, can it?). And I was a guy that was waffling between 6-6 and 7-5. The first four weeks of the season brought a lot of clarity. After that, I feel like I've had a pretty good handle on the team. IIRC had us losing big-but-not-as-big-as-the-spread against UGA, playing a one-score game either way against Auburn, getting rolled by Bama, losing to South Carolina, beating Charlotte in uninspiring fashion, beating Kentucky, losing by double-digits to Missouri (was thinking more like 13 than 33 though), and beating Vandy. Still got my fingers crossed for that last piece falling into place, because it could easily go the other way.
That's about where I am, but potentially not having JG and/or Calloway destroys my optimism. Our bread and butter this year have been 50/50 bombs to Calloway. I'm probably a little too paranoid, but I feel like Mizzou knew that and took a cheap shot to knock him out of the game for that reason.
The injuries are certainly a complicating factor. But this is also a defense that has been bleeding yards and points to anyone with a semi-functioning passing game. Even Tennessee State had 270 passing and 27 points. I don't think we're likely to light them up, but I think we'll get out points. The question will be whether our defense can hold them to field goals. They've been averaging in the high 20s the last six weeks or so. I think if we hold them to 20, we win. But I don't have a lot of faith in our offense to keep up if the game gets into the 30s.
TN: 41 Vandy: 24 This is this team’s chance to salvage something good from this season, and which will be an uptick for the program. They’ll seize it, and it won’t be as close as this score indicates.
