Tennessee Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2022 season

The Tennessee football team has a chance to bounce back after a thumping from Georgia with their final home game of the season against Mizzou.

The Vols have enjoyed a three-game winning streak against the Tigers and that was when Mizzou had star running back Tyler Badie. He broke the single-season rushing record in the team’s final game against Arkansas last year. The Tigers have also had to replace QB Connor Bazelak, who transferred to Indiana.

This is a Missouri team still trying to find its footing under Head Coach Elian Drinkwitz. But, by the time they meet the Vols in Knoxville, they could hit their stride with a relatively favorable schedule post-Bye Week. They’ll have Vanderbilt at home, South Carolina on the road, and Kentucky at home before facing the Vols.

It’ll be a close game, but if the Vols are healthy, they’ll be able to pull this one out and get their sixth win of the season.

Prediction: Tennessee 27, Missouri 20 (6-4)

South Carolina could not get any traction last season, beginning with the fifth game of the season, the Gamecocks followed up every win with a disappointing loss the following week.

Shane Beamer impressed everyone in his first year at the helm in Columbia and with Spencer Rattler poised to take over the offense after transferring in from Oklahoma, this is a team that should be competitive in just about every game this season.

The Gamecocks will be hosting the Vols at Williams-Brice Stadium for their final home game of the season. It’ll be a tough environment for Tennessee, but they have enough talent on both sides of the ball to withstand a big push from South Carolina.

Prediction: Tennessee 27, South Carolina 24 (7-4)

The final game of the 2022 regular season will come against the rebuilding Vanderbilt Commodores.

Vanderbilt can’t get much worse than the 2-10 outing from last season, but with eight extremely tough SEC games and non-conference games against Hawaii, Elon, Wake Forest, and Northern Illinois, morale may be low once Vandy limps across the finish for the final game of the regular season.

By my projections, if Tennessee can win this final game, they’ll finish 2022 on a three-game winning streak and will have earned eight regular season wins.

That’ll be another huge step in the right direction for Heupel and the Vols. They should get invited to a solid bowl game after a good season, putting Tennessee football squarely back on the map in the SEC.

Prediction: Tennessee 41, Vanderbilt 27 (8-4)