One week into the college football season, Tennessee is already showing up in bowl talk - and the projections are coming from two very different directions.
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach released their Week 1 College Football Playoff and bowl projections on Sept. 8, and each has the Volunteers headed to a different postseason destination. Bonagura puts Tennessee in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl against UCF in Memphis. Schlabach sends the Vols to Houston for the Kinder’s Texas Bowl, where Baylor would be the opponent.
For Tennessee fans, that kind of projection can feel like a question more than a compliment: is that really the ceiling?
The answer, at least this early, is no. These are projections after one game, not verdicts on the season.
Still, Tennessee’s opener gave people plenty to chew on. The Vols rolled past Furman 56-9 at Neyland Stadium to open the 2026 season, and freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon made his debut look easy. He finished 13 of 17 for 226 yards and added 68 rushing yards, while accounting for five touchdowns - three passing and two rushing - to tie Tennessee’s freshman record for total touchdowns in a game.
That performance earned Brandon SEC Freshman of the Week honors. Tennessee also piled up 638 yards of total offense, with 329 coming on the ground.
Yes, it came against Furman. Nobody in Knoxville is booking playoff travel off that alone.
But five touchdowns in a first college start will always turn heads.
Bonagura’s Liberty Bowl pick would come with a built-in storyline. Josh Heupel coached UCF from 2018-20 before taking over at Tennessee in 2021, so a meeting with the Knights would create one of bowl season’s more obvious reunion angles.
The setting would matter too. A game in Memphis would keep Tennessee close to home, and Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium would figure to lean heavily orange.
Schlabach’s projection takes Tennessee a different route. His Texas Bowl matchup would send the Vols to NRG Stadium in Houston for an SEC-Big 12 pairing with Baylor. It doesn’t carry the Heupel-UCF angle, but it would still give Tennessee a notable Power Four bowl opponent.
Even so, all of this comes with a giant asterisk: it’s September.
Tennessee’s immediate focus shifts to Atlanta, where the Vols face Georgia Tech at Bobby Dodd Stadium at 7 p.m. ET. The teams haven’t played since Tennessee’s 42-41 double-overtime win in 2017, and the Vols haven’t been to Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1986.
After that, Tennessee returns home for Kennesaw State before diving into an SEC schedule that includes Texas, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas A&M, LSU, and Vanderbilt.
So for now, the bowl chatter can wait. Tennessee has plenty of football left to make both of those projections disappear.
In Other News...
Tennessee Has An Unexpected Name Entering The Heisman Conversation
Freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon has quickly become the most unexpected Tennessee name showing up in the early Heisman conversation, a reflection of how much attention can attach to a young player even before the season really settles in. Brandon is the Vols player sitting atop the betting odds board for the award, with backup quarterback George MacIntyre and running back DeSean Bishop also hanging around the contender mix as Tennessees offense continues to draw interest.
There has even been some broader recognition beyond the quarterback room, with defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam earning an honorable mention from ESPNs Bill Connelly for his work in Tennessees win over Furman. The next chance for the Vols to build on all of that comes against Georgia Tech, a matchup set for ESPN that will offer another early test of how real this buzz around Tennessee might be. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee's Georgia Tech Trip Comes With A Personal Sideline Twist
Tennessees trip to Bobby Dodd Stadium brings more than just a rare nonconference meeting with Georgia Tech. It will be the Volunteers first game there in 40 years, a notable enough backdrop on its own, but it also puts wide receivers coach Kelsey Pope on one sideline and his brother, Kyle Pope, on the other.
Kyle Pope has been on Georgia Techs staff since 2024 and has built a coaching rsum that includes stops at Memphis, Liberty and Alabama. For Tennessee, it adds a personal layer to a game that already carries some history, with the Popes spending the week in opposing meeting rooms before sharing the same field in Atlanta. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessee Suddenly Has A Receiver Depth Problem Behind Braylon Staley
Tennessees receiving room took another hit in the opener against Furman, and the loss of Joakim Dodson only deepened the early strain on a group already trying to settle in around Braylon Staley. Dodsons right leg injury ended his season before it really started, and it arrived as the fourth season-ending injury for the Vols this early in 2026, a reminder of how quickly depth can vanish in a hurry.
That leaves freshman Tyreek King in line for a much larger backup role behind Staley than Tennessee likely imagined when the season opened. King came to Knoxville in May 2026 after committing in 2024, and the former four-star recruit now has an immediate chance to accelerate his development because the Vols do not have many easy answers at receiver. [Read more 🡒]