Throughout this turnaround, the narrative for critics has been that Tennessee football beat up on lesser competition. Now, even if that were true, the competition was still stiffer than the two Group of Five teams who beat them in Knoxville earlier in the year, so there’s no denying the Vols have improved dramatically in Jeremy Pruitt’s second season.
But in this turnaround that has involved four straight wins and five of six overall, only one team UT beat was a Power Five team with a winning record when they played them, the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Right now, MSU and the Missouri Tigers are 5-6.