Tennessee football: Realistic post-spring expectations for 2023

The 2022 season was a resounding success for Tennessee football and second-year head coach Josh Heupel. He went just 7-6 the year before, but he was bringing in a ton of talent, led by veteran quarterback Hendon Hooker.

No one was unhappy with the 11-2 season with wins over LSU, Alabama, and Clemson but now expectations are on the rise.

Tennessee loses Hooker to the NFL and Joe Milton will take over after an interesting college career that started at Michigan. He had 971 yards and 10 touchdowns with no picks in backup duty last season and helped lead the Volunteers to an Orange Bowl win over Clemson when Hooker got hurt. He’ll have Bru McCoy as his likely WR1 but don’t sleep on Oregon transfer Dont’e Thornton or Squirrel White.

The defense returns just five starters but that may not be a bad thing, especially since the secondary ranked 127th in passing yards allowed per game. There’s plenty of room for improvement. The front-seven should be strong but don’t sleep on some of those defensive backs such as Tamarion McDonald.

What does this mean for 2023 expectations?

Realistic post-spring Tennessee football expectations

The secondary can’t get any worse than last year and the offense may not be quite as effective with Milton replacing Hooker, but Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright should help take some pressure off the passing game. Expectations for this team should be high.

Looking at the schedule, the “sure” wins would have to be Virginia, Austin Peay, UTSA, UConn, Missouri, and Vanderbilt. That’s six wins right there as the base, but I’d also lean wins in the South Carolina, Texas A&M, and Kentucky games.

The three games I’d lean loss are Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.

Realistically, a 9-3 record under Milton seems fair. This team could win 10 regular-season games but the Volunteers could also fall to 8-4. I’m going with 9-3.