Expected Win Total Machine – Week 3

With the loss to Pitt, it’s a pretty safe bet that our community expected win total is going south of 7 after rounding up. We’ve spent the first two weeks at 6.74 and 6.60, but now the real question will be how many of us will dip into the 5’s this week. You know the drill:

If Pitt is good-to-great, we probably won’t know it for a minute. The Panthers’ next four weeks go Western Michigan, New Hampshire, Georgia Tech, bye week. Until then, here’s how you might be feeling about the rest of Tennessee’s schedule this week:

• About the same: Florida, probably, depending on how many Anthony Richardson highlights you watch and/or how much you think Dan Mullen will play him and/or how much you value non-Central directional Florida schools as opponents. You know how to value Alabama, which is to say we may not learn anything about the Gators this week either. South Carolina struggled early but rallied late to beat East Carolina. Georgia ran through UAB.
• Probably worse: Ole Miss, and definitely worse since we last turned loose the win total machine before their game against Louisville last Monday night. The Rebels get Tulane, Alabama, and Arkansas before coming to Neyland, so there’s some time for opinion forming still. Somehow Kentucky and Missouri accomplished the rare feat of playing against each other and making me feel worse about our chances of beating either of them. The Tigers become the next big opportunity to move toward six wins; they’re at Boston College the week before hosting us, so we’ll see if things change between now and then on their end. And a late-night kudos to Vanderbilt, undefeated in FBS play.