ESPN keeps Tennessee on the road for first round in new College Football Playoff projections

ESPN moved Tennessee up to No. 7 in its updated projection of the College Football Playoff rankings on Saturday night. ESPN’s updated 12-team bracket had the Vols staying put as the No. 9 seed, going to No. 8-seed Ohio State in the first round. 

The Ohio State-Tennessee winner would advance to face No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

“Tennessee should be in the CFP,” ESPN’s Heather Dinich wrote, “it’s just a matter of where and if it will earn a first-round home game as one of the teams seeded Nos. 5 through 8. 

“All it can do is wait and watch the SEC title game to see how Georgia fares and how it might impact Tennessee’s final ranking.”

Tennessee ended 10-2 regular season with 36-23 win at Vanderbilt on Saturday

Tennessee (10-2, 6-2 SEC) seemingly clinched its spot in the 12-team College Football Playoff with its 36-23 win at Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville.

Georgia came back from down 17-0 to beat Georgia Tech 44-42 in eight overtimes Friday night. Georgia and Texas will play for the SEC Championship on Saturday in Atlanta. 

Behind undefeated Oregon at No. 1 was No. 2 Texas (11-1), No. 3 Penn State (11-1) and No. 4 Notre Dame. Georgia (10-2) was No. 5 and Ohio State (10-2) fell to No. 6 after its 13-10 home loss to Michigan. 

The rest of the top 12 from ESPN was No. 8 SMU (11-1), No. 9 Indiana (11-1), No. 10 Boise State, No. 11 Miami (11-2) and No. 12 Alabama (9-3). Just outside the top 12 was No. 13 Ole Miss, No. 14 South Carolina and No. 15 Arizona State. The Sun Devils were in the bracket as the projected Big 12 champion.

Oregon (Big Ten), Texas (SEC), SMU (ACC) and Boise State (Mountain West) got byes into the quarterfinals as ESPN’s four highest-ranked conference champions. 

ESPN’s other first-round matchups were No. 12 Arizona State at No. 5 Penn State, No. 11 Miami at No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 10 Indiana at No. 7 Georgia. 

The Arizona State/Penn State winner would face No. 4 Boise State, the Miami/Notre Dame winner would face No. 3 SMU and the Indiana/Georgia winner would face No. 2 Texas.

Nico Iamaleava: ‘It’s go time for us, go time for our team. We know what time it is’

The Vols were ranked eighth in the College Football Playoff Top 25 and seeded ninth in the selection committee’s updated bracket on Tuesday night, after being ranked 11th and the first team out of the 12-team field the week before, coming off the 31-17 loss at Georgia.

“Now the next season starts,” Tennessee coach Josh Heupel said after the game. “What are we going do with it?”

Tennessee got down 14-0 in the first quarter at Vanderbilt, but rallied to take a 24-17 lead at halftime and built the lead to 36-17 in the fourth quarter. 

The Vols overcame the 19-14 loss at Arkansas on October 5 on the way to the postseason, bouncing back with wins over Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi State before the loss at Georgia snapped the four-game win streak. 

“It was a goal,” Heupel said of making the expanded playoff, “but there was an expectation to be in this and that comes from the work that everybody has put in and who we have in the building. Proud of these guys for for executing and putting us in a position to be there.”

“These guys earned the right for this to be a big game,” Heupel added. “They went out, they took it. Got to take it as a competitor when you’re in the arena.”

Nico Iamaleava completed 18 of 26 passes for 257 yards with four touchdowns and one interception and rushed six times for 42 yards in the win. He led back-to-back touchdown drives of 91 and 96 yards in the second quarter to turn a 17-10 deficit into a 24-17 win. 

“(It’s a) great feeling, man,” Iamaleava said of the Vols heading toward the playoff. “Super happy we were able to secure that spot. And now the real work starts. So it’s go time for us, go time for our team. We know what time it is.”