Josh Heupel discusses Tennessee's approach to playoff discussion

A lot can change in a week. Tennessee was the No. 1 team in the initial College Football Playoff rankings for the 2022 season. After their loss to Georgia this weekend, though, the Volunteers may be on the outside looking in on the first update to the standings that will come this week. Even after all that, Josh Heupel reiterated on Monday that Tennessee’s approach hasn’t changed at all.

Heupel talked about the program’s postseason focus during his this week’s press conference. He said a lot can still change with a month left to play in the season. With that said, all the Vols can do is play their best to end the year and let the chips fall where they may when it comes to the postseason.

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“There’s a whole month of football (left). There’s a lot of football left to be played by everybody in the country,” said Heupel. “Up until this point, we’ve done a lot of things right…There’s nothing that we can control other than who we are, how we approach it, (and) how we go play and compete.”

“At the end of the day, it’s about trying to find a way to be the best team on the field during the 60 minutes. That’s all we’re concerned about.”

On one hand, Tennessee’s path to the playoff got more complicated after the loss to Georgia. Unless the Bulldogs have a major slip-up, they’ll be the team that represents the SEC East on December 3rd. Without the SEC Title appearance, the Volunteers need to continue to make a statement to end their regular season. The only problem is they’ve already played the best that their schedule has to offer. With those things working against them, Heupel and Tennessee don’t control as much of their own destiny as they did a week ago.

On the other hand, the Volunteers were helped a ton by the rest of this weekend’s schedule. Alabama and Clemson’s losses essentially removed two teams from the conversation. That leaves a small group that includes Michigan, TCU, Oregon, or LSU that Tennessee has to make a case against.

None of this matters if Heupel and the Vols don’t handle business to end their season. That’s why their focus needs to be in the right place which, as of this week, should be Missouri. If they do that, the puzzle pieces may still fall into place for Tennessee to make the CFP, even without the 2022 SEC Title.