ESPN Predictor Still Favors Tennessee in Three of Its Final Four Games

As Tennessee heads into November and its bye week stretch, ESPN Analytics has refreshed its game-by-game outlook for the final four contests of the regular season. The model still favors the Volunteers in three of those games, but its confidence has slipped slightly in each matchup after the loss at South Carolina, a 27-24 defeat decided by a 48-yard field goal as time expired.

The closing run begins with Kentucky visiting for Homecoming on November 7, a series Tennessee leads 85-26-9 across 120 meetings dating to 1893, with a perfect 5-0 mark against the Wildcats under Josh Heupel. ESPN now gives Tennessee a 67.4 percent chance to win, down from 71.0 percent before Week 8. The Vols then travel to Texas A&M on November 14, where the model has them at 52.6 percent, down from 55.8 percent, in what projects as the tightest of the three games it expects them to win.

The one game ESPN now has Tennessee losing is the November 21 home meeting with LSU, where the Vols' chance has fallen from 42.3 percent to 36.2 percent. That game also brings former Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin back to Neyland Stadium, this time leading LSU. Tennessee won the most recent meeting between the programs, 40-13 at Baton Rouge in October 2022, though LSU has taken seven of the last ten in the series.

The regular season ends November 28 at Vanderbilt, in the 120th meeting of a series that dates to 1892. ESPN remains most confident about that finale, putting Tennessee at 86.0 percent, only slightly below the 87.4 percent it assigned before Week 5. How closely the next month follows those numbers will shape where a Tennessee team that has already beaten Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas, among others, finishes its season.