Clay Travis’ Starting 11: Tennessee Whips Oklahoma, Is Officially Back Among Nation’s Elite

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Tennessee fans have been walking in the college football wilderness since 2007, the last season the team advanced to the SEC title game.

There were moments of brief hope — Butch Jones started 5-0 in 2016 — but those moments were fleeting. Generally speaking, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, the three biggest Tennessee football rivals, dominated the Vols each fall. Tennessee fans adopted the reflective fetal position to protect against BVS, battered Vol syndrome. Jokes among fans were dark, expectations were that Tennessee football would always manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  

It got so bad that 8-4 began to feel like a good season.

The same 8-4 that would have gotten Phil Fulmer fired would have gotten a new coach a statue.

The depths of despair culminated when Butch Jones’s team went 4-8 in 2017 and he was fired. Then came the Vol winter — the attempted hire of Greg Schiano, the fan revolt, the firing of athletic director John Currie, and the hiring of Jeremy Pruitt.

Pruitt got caught in NCAA crosshairs over inappropriate player benefits — how much have college sports moved in the past several years that “a scandal” such as this now seems so absolutely quaint? — and the big orange football house was cleaned.

In came new athletic director Danny White, formerly at Central Florida, and soon thereafter his first truly major hire — Central Florida head coach Josh Heupel.

Some, myself included, felt hiring your own football coach lacked vision, a bit of nepotism, even.

But Heupel’s selection has proven brilliant.

Anyone who doubted it at all has now been proven wrong.

Almost immediately, Heupel began scoring points, but in year three of his tenure everything came together, Tennessee started off 8-0 and the Volunteer fan base, so long outside the national picture, glistened with orange glee as Tennessee climbed to number one in the playoff rankings. A 2-2 regular season finish, including an awful performance at South Carolina when quarterback Hendon Hooker tore his ACL and the defense gave up over sixty points, stole some of the big orange glisten, but it had been such a joyful, unexpected ride that most enjoyed it immensely, especially the win in the Orange Bowl to take the Vols to 11-2.

But last year was a dip, a plodding, for Heupel, at least, sojourn through an 8-4 regular season that once again featured the regular losses — Florida, Alabama and Georgia — and an absolute beatdown from Missouri on the road. Yes, Nico came in for the bowl game and nine wins was still a good season, but all offseason the question in Vol fan minds was whether 2022 was an early harbinger of things to come for Josh Heupel, or a brief, joyous surge of victory, a short respite, a short-lived spring in the long Vol winter of discontent.

Well, after last night, I think we officially have our answer.

Tennessee is back among the nation’s elite and this team is built to stay there for a while.

Josh Heupel has returned the Volunteer football program to title-contending, top ten status.

I really believe that.

With that in mind, let’s dive into the Starting 11.  

1. The Tennessee defense is elite and Heupel has learned to coach differently as a result

Last night there were two brief glimmers of hope for Oklahoma in the first half — both came after strip sacks of Nico. Oklahoma took possession first and goal at the five and first and ten at the Tennessee 33.

After each of these turnovers, the Tennessee defense immediately turned over the Sooners on the next play.

Which was pretty incredible.

After the second of those back-to-back turnovers, Tennessee took possession on a short field and went up 19-3, I think Heupel knew he had the game won and essentially took the air out of the game at that point.

With a depleted Tennessee offensive line that was down to third and fourth stringers at left and right tackle for some snaps, Heupel wasn’t stubborn and he wasn’t looking for crooked offensive numbers in his return to Oklahoma revenge game.

He’s come to understand that any road win in the SEC is a good result and he didn’t force it with his playcalling.

Get your win and head back to Knoxville with an undefeated record.

This, as I told you earlier this season, is a team right now riding its elite defense, the best the Vols have had since the early 2000’s. Right now that’s Tennessee’s identity.

Now, can Nico potentially be the 2010 version of Cam Newton, a quarterback with a great offensive mind coaching him, who gets better and better all season long and eventually materializes into a top quarterback? Yes, the talent is there, I think he can be Cam good. That’s the optimistic theory for why this Tennessee team can be a title contender.

And it’s throws like these that Nico continues to sprinkle into his performances that has me bullish on how good he can become.

But his true tests will be in October and November now.

In the meantime, Nico’s still a work in progress with just five career starts, but he’s 5-0 in those five starts and all of them have been double-digit wins.

Now the Vols get two weeks to prepare for Arkansas on the road. Win that game, and you will return to Knoxville for four straight home games — Florida, Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi State.

And a 6-0 Tennessee against 6-0 Alabama on October 19th isn’t out of the question at all.

The Vols are back among the nation’s elite, now the question is, can they make an SEC title game and a playoff?

I think the answer to both is yes.  

2. Oklahoma has a very good defense, but no quarterback

Maybe there’s a quarterback controversy in Oklahoma now, since Michael Hawkins came in for the second half and outperformed Jackson Arnold, who had three turnovers in the first half, but I tend to think this OU team is going to be below.500 in year one in the SEC no matter which quarterback the Sooners pick.

The defense is good enough to keep you in a game against anyone, but the offense doesn’t have a second gear to compete with the best teams.

I know, I know.

The Sooners finally have a good defense, but now their offense has vanished. It’s the exact opposite situation for most of the past 15 years or so of Oklahoma football.  

Texas, Ole Miss and Alabama are likely losses and there are some landmine games on this brutal year one in the SEC schedule too — at Missouri, at LSU, South Carolina, and at Auburn.

I figure 3-5 in SEC year one is likely.

This was a must win for Oklahoma and they couldn’t get it done.

Middle tier in the SEC is the Sooner lot for year one.  

3. Michigan beat USC, but proved in the process they have no quarterback and aren’t a title contender

First, congrats to the Wolverines, that was a 1940’s style football win.

How many teams could take possession needing an 89 yard touchdown drive and do that drive almost entirely on the ground?

Virtually none.

How many could win a game against a top 25 opponent with 32! yards passing?!

Maybe none.

That’s bittersweet though.

Sweet because they got the win, bitter because Michigan also showed why it’s not a playoff or Big Ten title contending team.

I said after the Texas loss Michigan felt like an 8-4 team to me this year.

I’ll double down on that even after this win.  

As for USC, the second half defense was fantastic for much of the day, but when they needed to be stout against the run to preserve the victory, they missed a huge tackle and gave away the victory.

I think the Trojans are the better team than Michigan, but I also don’t see them as having playoff or title-winning talent.

This is a 9-3 Trojan team at best.

And even that win over LSU, given how poor the Tigers have looked since, it really doesn’t look that sterling a few weeks later.

I will say, however, what a high quality game this was. Instead of USC in a match up against a Pac 12 opponent no one cared about, we got an absolutely elite showdown, Hollywood to the Big House, LA against the Big Ten, one of the best battles between iconic brands of the season.

Thanks, realignment!

4. Utah establishes Big 12 dominance without having its quarterback on the road at Oklahoma State

The awkward merger between the Pac 12 remnants and the Big 12 remnants has left the Big 12 as the most uncertain of our major conferences.

Who would climb the Big 12 title mountain to claim the (likely) playoff bid and bye into the round of eight, the newcomers or the leftovers?

Well, you have to put Utah at the top of the list after this road win with a third-string quarterback.

Kyle Whittingham has built a culture that won’t be outphysicaled and on Saturday they took control of the game in Stillwater and refused to relinquish it all afternoon.

Right now, Utah only has one top 25 team left on the schedule — Iowa State — and is in the Big 12 driver’s seat for a title game appearance.

5. BYU crushes Kansas State to surge to 4-0

Don’t overlook the state of Utah in playoff discussions.

In fact, Utah, the Beehive State, is likely to have more top 25 programs later today than Florida, the Sunshine State.

Who saw that coming in year one of the playoff?

And the BYU-Utah game in early November could even be replicated again in the Big 12 title game.

On a day when the old members of the Big 12, Oklahoma State and Kansas State, wanted to establish themselves as favorites, Utah and BYU served notice they should be considered the kings of the Big 12 mountain.

Now, before the glee gets too out of control, there were three turnovers from Kansas State and they outgained BYU by 120 yards of total offense, but it was still a monster win for the Cougars.

It feels to me like the Big 12 race is going to be a roller coaster for almost everyone and a two-loss champion feels very likely to me.

6. Missouri survives against Vanderbilt in double overtime

We’ve been talking in this column a great deal about teams needing to gut out wins when they pay poorly against inferior teams. We’ve already seen Penn State and Georgia do that — and we’ve seen Notre Dame fail to do that — now you can add Missouri to the survive and advance swarm.

The Tigers needed a double overtime missed 31-yard field goal from Vanderbilt to remain unbeaten.

Vanderbilt had a first and ten at the Mizzou 12 in double overtime. Facing a second and 13, Vandy got a devastating offensive pass interference call that essentially killed their touchdown chances.

Then came the awful shank from their kicker, who had nailed a 57-yarder to end the half.

Vandy appears much improved this season, but the Commodores aren’t the main story here — Mizzou is.

We know Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee are very good in the SEC — all four have posted big road or neutral wins against decent opponents — and it’s hard to argue against what Ole Miss has done through four games either.

So does Mizzou have the ability to challenge these top five teams for SEC supremacy?

I don’t think so.

But the schedule is weak enough that they might be able to keep up appearances.

Earlier, I laid out the gauntlet that Oklahoma faces in year one. It’s brutal. What’s the opposite of that? Consider this SEC schedule for Missouri: Vanderbilt, at Texas A&M, Auburn, at Alabama, Oklahoma, at South Carolina, at Mississippi State, and Arkansas.

Amazingly, Missouri might only play one end of season top 25 team in the SEC slate.

That’s nearly impossible when you consider there are five other teams in the top seven right now, Mizzou only draws one of them!

If Mizzou was truly elite, anything less than 10-2 or 11-1 would be a tremendous disappointment with this schedule.

Can they pull that record off? Maybe. But I think this is an incredibly rare case where you can argue an SEC team might not be very tested by its schedule.  

7. Don’t overlook Miami’s dominance so far this season

The Hurricanes appear to be the class of the ACC, they’re just crushing everyone.

It would be a huge upset if Miami isn’t in the ACC title game.

But who might they play?

Look out, I think I hear Clemson’s music!

After being left for dead in week one, the Clemson offense has come out of hibernation and is crushing people. The Tigers look like the second best team in the ACC. Yes, better than you too, Louisville.    

8. James Madison puts up 70! on North Carolina

Two weeks ago, James Madison scored 13 points against Gardner-Webb, they scored 53! points in the first half against the Tar Heels.

This was the best day for James Madison since the Federalist papers.

It was also not a good day for the Kamala Harris campaign to decide to talk sports. In attempting to take a shot at Donald Trump’s rally at North Carolina, the Kamala campaign, at halftime of the games, mind you, suggested that state of North Carolina football fans would be better off watching the Tar Heels, the N.C. State Wolfpack or the Charlotte 49ers instead.

All three teams were in the process of being demolished.

9. How does Vegas see the national title race shaping up this morning as we still a third of the way through the regular season for many top teams?

Well, per Vegas there are nine major contenders and then a bunch of big longshots.

Ohio State +340
Georgia +400
Texas +480
Alabama +750
Oregon +1000
Ole Miss +1200
Tennessee +1200
Miami +1800
Penn State +2000

And then big jumps in title odds after the top nine teams:

Clemson +4000
Missouri +5000
LSU +5000
USC +5000
Utah +5000
Notre Dame +6000
Texas A&M +8000
Oklahoma +10000

What does this suggest? Well, given the fact that we will have 12 playoff contenders, there are going to be two or three teams that make the playoff that Vegas feels have no chance whatsoever to win a title. Michigan, for instance, is now 150-1 to win the title.

10. My Outkick Top Ten and my playoff rankings if the season ended today

Reminder, I only rank teams based on the games we’ve seen on the field. Early in the year I give particular influence to road or neutral site wins over power conference teams. So if your team hasn’t played anyone like this yet — I’m talking about you, Ohio State Buckeye fans, then you may be lower in my poll than you believe your talent warrants.

First, my Outkick top ten.

1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. Alabama
5. Miami
6. Ole Miss
7. Ohio State
8. Penn State
9. Illinois
10. BYU

My playoff 12

Reminder, the top four seeds have to be conference title winners. And at least one team in the top 12 has to be a non-power conference team.

1. Texas (SEC champion)
2. Ohio State (Big Ten champion)
3. Miami (ACC champion)
4. Utah (Big 12 champion)
5. Georgia
6. Tennessee
7. Alabama
8. Ole Miss
9. Penn State
10. Oregon
11. BYU
12. UNLV

11. SEC power rankings 1-16

I rank my SEC teams the same way I rank my top ten, based entirely on the field results we have seen so far.

We’ve barely begun conference play and already we are down to just six SEC unbeatens.

1. Texas
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. Alabama
5. Ole Miss
6. Missouri
7. Oklahoma
8. LSU
9. Texas A&M
10. Arkansas
11. South Carolina
12. Vanderbilt
13. Kentucky
14. Auburn
15. Florida
16. Mississippi State