Early look at Tennessee's 2015 football schedule: November

As it has in recent years past, Tennessee’s football schedule will have a much easier final month than the previous two.

Tennessee’s final four games include home games against South Carolina and North Texas, followed by a trip to Columbia to face Missouri, and then ending with a game at home against Vanderbilt.

In his two seasons on Rocky Top, Butch Jones is a combined 3-3 against the three SEC teams that the Vols play in November.

Here’s how the last part of Tennessee’s schedule plays out:

November 7 vs. South Carolina

Since Butch Jones was hired at Tennessee prior to the 2013 season, no one has been able to consistently beat the South Carolina Gamecocks as well as UT has.

Butch Jones can claim a 2-0 record over the Gamecocks in his time with the Vols, no other team in that time span has more than one win over South Carolina.

The 2013 victory was a 23-21 triumph over the 11th ranked Gamecocks, ending Tennessee’s 19-game losing streak against ranked teams. In 2014, it was a 45-42 come from behind, overtime victory, where at one point Tennessee trailed by 14 points with less than two minutes left.

Steve Spurrier, despite saying “I’ve still got four or five more years in me” after the 2014 season, could possibly be at the end of his coaching career, and would love nothing more than a win over Tennessee at the end of his long run.

The chances of Spurrier retiring would increase greatly if they Gamecocks have another season like 2014.

After being ranked 9th in the country in the preseason, the Gamecocks finished 7-6 (3-5 SEC).

The defense was a large part of that, ranking 91st in the country in points allowed with 30.4 per game.

Though South Carolina finished 7-6 in 2014, they were better than their record indicated. Four of their six losses were by an average of 4.5 points.

South Carolina loses quarterback Dylan Thompson and running back Mike Davis for 2015, but returns wide receiver Pharoh Cooper and running back Brandon Wilds.

The offense should regress slightly, but with Spurrier calling plays, the Gamecocks will still be a threat offensively.

Even with Spurrier overseeing South Carolina, a big part of this matchup is that Tennessee knows they can beat the Gamecocks, having done it two years in a row.

With this game being at Neyland Stadium, and South Carolina’s defense still being a question mark, Tennessee will have enough to beat the Gamecocks and continue to fight for the SEC East title.

Early Prediction: Win (6-3, 3-3 SEC)

November 14 vs. North Texas

After a brutal stretch of six SEC games in a row, Tennessee will get a down week with North Texas traveling to Knoxville.

North Texas is coming off of a 4-8 (2-6 C-USA) season in which they lost six of their last eight games.

The Mean Green return their leading passer (Andrew McNulty), leading rusher (Antoinne Jimmerson), and leading receiver (Carlos Harris) from an offense that averaged 27.2 points per game in 2014.

The North Texas defense ranked 86th in the country in 2014, giving up 29.8 points per game.

Barring a miracle, this game should not be close. The Tennessee starters will get to rest in the second half before a big game against Missouri the next week.

Early Prediction: Win (7-3, 3-3 SEC)

November 21 at Missouri

The last two seasons, the Missouri football team has shocked everybody by winning the SEC East two seasons in row.

After going 5-7 in their inaugural year in the SEC, the Tigers have been a combined 23-5 over the last two seasons, including 3-0 against Tennessee.

Although Missouri (11-3, 7-1 SEC in 2014) is not expected to be as good in 2015, the Tigers are difficult to get a pulse on.

The Tigers will get quarterback Maty Mauk and running back Russell Hansbrough back, but they lose their top four receivers (86 percent of receiving yards), standout defensive end Markus Golden, SEC special teams player of the year Marcus Murphy, and SEC defensive player of the year Shane Ray.

Last season when Missouri came to Knoxville for a late season matchup, the emergence of Josh Dobbs for Tennessee compelled many to pick the Vols to beat the Tigers.

But Missouri’s defense overwhelmed Tennessee’s inexperienced offensive line, and the Tigers stormed into Neyland Stadium and won, 29-21.

A big part of Missouri’s success in that game, and all season, was their defense, which is expected to regress in 2015. Replacing players like Golden and Ray is not something that happens quickly.

Missouri could easily win the wide-open SEC East for a third consecutive season in 2015, and this game could potentially be for the SEC East crown.

In the last of only four true road games on the schedule, Tennessee will come away with arguably its biggest win of the season in a tight game in Columbia.

Early Prediction: Win (8-3, 4-3 SEC)

November 28 vs. Vanderbilt

Perhaps the most surprising part of the recent downfall of Tennessee football was the two losses in a row to Vanderbilt in 2012 and 2013.

From 1983-2011, Tennessee beat Vanderbilt 28 out of 29 times, and then the Commodores came out of nowhere to win two in a row.

But things were restored to normal in 2014 when Tennessee traveled to Nashville and beat Vanderbilt to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2010.

Even for Vanderbilt, 2014 was a season to forget. The Commodores (3-9, 0-8 SEC) were last in the SEC in nearly every category imaginable, and had one of the worst offenses in the country.

In the final game of the season, Vanderbilt was three points away from becoming the first SEC football team ever to lose every conference game by double digits.

A website called firederekmason.net existed just two games into the season.

Almost everything that could have gone wrong for Vanderbilt did go wrong.

The first thing that Derek Mason has to do to begin building the Commodore program is find a quarterback, which was an adventure for VU in 2014.

Four different quarterbacks started games last season for Vanderbilt. To make things worse, the frontrunner to take the job in 2015, Patton Robinette, retired from football, which leaves Vanderbilt with even more inexperience at the position.

Overall, Vanderbilt just isn’t ready to compete with Tennessee, and maybe not any SEC team. Tennessee will easily beat the Commodores and roll into the postseason.

Early Prediction: Win (9-3, 5-3 SEC)

November Games Opinion:

Tennessee has a very good chance to end the season on a five game winning streak, and a very good shot at winning the SEC East if they do so.

Usually it’s unlikely to win a division with a 5-3 conference record, but with the East being as wide-open as it is, a lot of the teams will beat up on each other, which can force tiebreakers to come into play and make it possible for a team with multiple losses to win the division.

A scenario like this occurred in 2010, when a 5-3 South Carolina team represented the East in Atlanta for the conference championship game.

One dominant team did not emerge, so the SEC East teams beat up on each other, and a team with a slightly above average conference record won the division.

If Tennessee’s games do shake out how I have predicted (losses to Florida, Arkansas, and Alabama), Tennessee would own the head to head tiebreaker over every SEC East team except Florida, who should be more of a middle of the pack team anyways.

The SEC portion of the last four games of the 2015 season will be crucial to whether or not Tennessee will be at the Georgia Dome in December representing the SEC East.

The main opportunity for a slip up is definitely the road trip to Missouri, but the Vols could definitely go 4-0 in this stretch and finish with a good record.

Regular Season Early Prediction: 9-3 (5-3 SEC) SEC Eastern Division Champions

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