Tennessee Football: My blind faith believes the Vols can win six games

Tennessee football looked better than they had all year last Saturday, and now my blind faith believes they can win six games.

I am going to be honest with you, the Tennessee Volunteers suck. Through their first four games of the season, they were competing with Arkansas as the worst team in the SEC.

It looked like the Vols might win two games this year if they were lucky. It looked like Jeremy Pruitt was eight games away from losing his job, but now things might be changing, or at least my blind faith in Tennessee believes that to be true.

The final score from the Tennessee-Georgia game was par for the course, but I did not expect the Vols to put up 14 points against Georgia’s starting defense.

I didn’t expect Brian Maurer to throw for 259 yards and two touchdowns. I didn’t expect Tennessee only to be trailing by 12 points at the half. I didn’t expect the Vols defense to keep Tennessee in the game through three quarters, but all that happened.

The Tennessee football team that took the field against Georgia were not the same team that took the field against Georgia State, BYU or Florida. Not only personnel-wise, but they actually looked like they wanted to play football last Saturday.

The team that played Georgia had some life, energy. They were ready to take on the challenge Georgia offers while it didn’t seem like they were ready for any other game this season.

If the Vols come out and play as they did against Georgia, then I think there’s a very good chance they can win at least five more games this season.

When you look at their schedule, there’s an automatic loss in Alabama left, but other than that, I think the Vols could win every one of those games.

Realistically, is there a chance they actually win every game I think they could win? No, because they’re Tennessee, but the fact that they still have a chance to win all of those games keeps my hopes alive.

Mississippi State, Alabama, South Carolina, UAB, Kentucky, Missouri, and Vanderbilt. The remaining opponents Tennessee will face currently have a combined record of 21-13.

You can credit nine of those wins to Alabama’s five and UAB’s four in C-USA. Other than that, the only other teams with a winning record are Mississippi State (3-2) and Missouri (4-1).

Seven games left, Vols need to win five to reach bowl eligibility. Can they get it done? My blind hope says with Brian Maurer in at quarterback Jeremy Pruitt, and the Vols find a way to win five more games to finish the season.

After Alabama, the hard part will be over, but a win against Mississippi State would be a huge step in the right direction to reach that six-win mark. Knowing that I believe the Vols will take down the Bulldogs in Neyland this Saturday.

Maurer needs to continue to improve off of his performance against Georgia, and with a better game plan from the coaches, he can get that done.

Tennessee is not a good football team right now, but when you look at the remaining schedule, the Vols aren’t far off from a few other SEC teams, which means they can be right back into the mix in a couple of years if Pruitt can get the train back on the tracks.

My blind faith has failed me time and time again, but I keep coming back to it for some reason. It makes me want to believe the Vols will be good again when I know they might be the worst team in the SEC.

For now, I’m going to take what they did against Georgia and run with it and hope my blind faith is right. I might have a different tone come Saturday night or Sunday morning, but for now, I think there’s still a path the Vols can take to get to six wins.