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Kentucky Wildcats, step right up.
After Saturday’s victory over a fine Mississippi State team, how can the Fighting Snells possibly not move up the charts?
That’s just what is happening here … not all the way up to the Citrus Bowl, mind you. Though if the SEC gets four teams into the New Year’s Day 6 (not a silly thought at all, that) then you never know.
One thing is for sure: Kentucky’s neighbors to the south only wish they were where the Wildcats are on the gridiron, and when was the last time that happened? Apart from last year, I mean.
I had Tennessee in the projections all along and was very skittish about it. The prediction was predicated on the Vols pulling off one upset somewhere along the line to get to 6 wins and bowl eligibility.
After Saturday’s blowout loss at home against Florida? Nope. Sure, it’s possible that the Tennessee could rise up after an awful start, the way Missouri did last year. But it looks really, really likely that UT will be 2-6 by the time their schedule lightens up in November. And after that UF game, how many people would put money on the Vols beating Kentucky or Missouri in November anyway?
So the Vols vacate their spot in these projections and the Birmingham Bowl, for now, will join the Independence Bowl without an SEC team this year.
On to the projections:
Longtime newspaper veteran Jim Tomlin is a copy editor and writer with SaturdayDownSouth.com.
