The Southeastern Conference has commitments to send 10 teams to bowl games. At the present time, the SEC has six teams that are locks for bowl bids and six teams that are locked in a battle to get the six wins necessary for a bowl bid.
Alabama, Missouri, Texas A&M, LSU, South Carolina and Auburn are locks for the postseason. The other four spots that the league is committed to send a team to are between Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi State and Tennessee.
Getting to a bowl game this season would be a big plus for Butch Jones in his first year as the Tennessee head coach. The Vols have had tough times the past few years and survived the disastrous end to the Phillip Fulmer era, the Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley years. The Vols haven’t won a bowl game since the 2008 Outback Bowl (beat Wisconsin) and they haven’t appeared in a bowl since the 2010 Music City Bowl.
The Vols are sitting at 4-5 now which means this Saturday’s game with 8-1 Auburn is a critical one for Tennessee. If they can beat Auburn to get to 5-5, they still have games left with Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Unfortunately for Jones, one of his wins is against Austin Peay, a FCS team, which means only three of his four wins will count toward bowl eligibility. That means to get to a bowl game the Vols will have to win out, and that starts Saturday against Auburn.
Jones is trying to get the Vols’ program back to being a force in the SEC East. There have been good signs, like an overtime loss to Georgia and the win over South Carolina. It will take that same kind of effort if the Vols are going to have a chance against the Tigers, one of the hottest teams in the SEC.
“I think right now we are dealing with the realities of building a football program and we are dealing with the realities of a football season,” said Jones. “There are natural adversities that the game and the process presents itself and that is what we are dealing with right now. Whether it is injuries and being on your third quarterback, whether it is the schedule that we have, the nicks, the bruises, the mental grind that it takes; the lack of depth.
“Those are natural adversities that occur throughout the course of the season. Everything is going to be based on how we finish. We put ourselves in position to play meaningful games, every game is meaningful from here on out. Everything is going to be defined on how we finish.”
“I said the formula for this team to win is pretty simple, we have to over achieve. We can’t beat ourselves. We aren’t going to be, talent-wise, the best team we play but that doesn’t make us the best team. The best teams for that given day win, not just best individuals, athletically or individually. So we have to be a team that overachieves, plays disciplined football and we weren’t able to do that {against Missouri).
“Inordinate amount of penalties, which is unacceptable. We spend too much time in practice with a full officiating crew, we are talking about the discipline it takes to win football games. We have done a really good job at most stages of the season and that wasn’t us Saturday night.
“Everything is based on how you play, how you compete, how you strain, how you play for ’63,’ which we talk about in our program. It is how you are able to play with the discipline that it takes to play winning football and our players understanding that. That is what we went back and really studied that, how we played the game, how we competed, the fundamentals, the fine details, that is something that we will continue to stress just like we do each and every week,” said the Vols’ coach.
Jones knows that playing Auburn is the next step in building his program.
“It’s another great opponent; another talented football team coming in here; up-tempo, team with a mentality to run the football, great, great challenge. I will tell you this, it is great to be home and playing in front of our crowd this week,” Jones said.
“I know they have a young team,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn. “They are very comfortable at home. They have a great place to play. They have a great crowd and everything that goes with that.”
One of the keys to this game is how well Tennessee’s rush defense stands up to Auburn’s ground game.
“That is where it starts with us,” said Malzahn. “We have to establish the run. We definitely need to establish the run, but obviously, you have to be balanced and take what the defense gives you.”
Unless, of course, you happen to be Tre Mason, who rushed for 168 yards and four touchdowns against Arkansas to give him season totals of 921 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“He’s really coming on. He wanted the ball the other night,” said Malzahn of his 5-10, 205-pound junior tailback. “You could tell that he was real explosive. He was breaking tackles. He’s a veteran guy and was wanting the football, and we just kept giving it to him. Moving forward, we’ll spread the ball around.”