Kirk Herbstreit takes shot at Tennessee during College Football Playoffs rankings reveal

It wouldn’t have been on any short list of upsets a few weeks ago, but ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit made a pretty bold prediction on Tuesday’s College Football Playoff rankings show: Vanderbilt will beat Tennessee this weekend. Given the way the Vols seem to be reeling and how the Commodores have risen in recent weeks, maybe it’s not as crazy as it seems.

Tennessee is coming off a jarring upset to South Carolina and the most pressing issue is that starting quarterback and Heisman candidate Hendon Hooker is out for the rest of the year with a torn ACL. That, plus some other turmoil — the ESPN broadcaster hinted at rumors about defensive back Jeremy Banks allegedly fighting Hooker in the locker room — has Herbstreit bullish on Vanderbilt.

“Or you can say that Clark Lea has a team that’s playing for bowl eligibility which is a big deal in the city of Nashville and Tennessee is not necessarily playing for bowl eligibility and their opportunity to get the playoff is gone. They’re fighting among themselves in the locker room. Things are not good, right now, in Knoxville. Plus Hendon Hooker, obviously, had that injury. So I got a weird feeling about Vandy this week,” Herbstreit said.

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Vanderbilt is currently play the best football the program has seen in years, snapping a 26-game SEC losing streak by ripping off back-to-back wins against Kentucky and Florida. At 5-6, a shocker against Tennessee would have the Commodores playing in a bowl in the second season under Lea — what would be a remarkable feat.

So confident is Herbstreit in the Commodores that he was willing to claim them as his SuperDog for College GameDay a full four days early.

“Gimme Vandy. I’m claiming Vandy right now, before you are even going to get close to that, Rece,” Herbstreit said.

“Outright?” host Rece Davis asked.

“Outright. Outright on Saturday,” Herbstreit said.