Several paragraphs later comes this:

Five straight wins to finish the season. The only SEC team who has a better winning streak is the conference champion, Alabama.

Now granted, not one of those five wins came against a team that was bowl eligible.

November’s been a joke of a month on Tennessee’s schedule since the dawn of time, it feels like.  So pardon the rest of the world if we’re not ready to jump the Vols into the top ten right now.

(Before some of you start, we’ll talk about next preseason when it gets here.)