A week from now, Tennessee's football season could be over.
A month from now, the Volunteers could still be playing.
Welcome to college's new landscape of a 12-team playoff that begins next weekend with four first-round matchups held on campus sites. Tennessee will be part of that mix next Saturday night (8 on ESPN), when the ninth-seeded Vols play at eighth-seeded Ohio State in a pairing of 10-2 teams.
"We're just approaching it as if we're still in season, which we are," Tennessee fifth-year senior defensive tackle Omari Thomas said this past week in a news conference. "In the regular season, you play almost every week, and that's the mindset we have. We have a bunch of games left to play.
"You've got to win your games, but we're looking at it like we've got multiple games to play in."
Should the Vols lose at Ohio State, their season would end in frigid conditions — the latest Weather.com forecast for next Saturday in Columbus calls for a high of 29 degrees and a low of 17 — several days before Christmas. That would be quite different from Tennessee's past two postseason journeys, when the Vols won the Orange Bowl and the Citrus Bowl after taking in Sunshine State attractions before those contests.
This time around, the Vols are departing for Columbus on Friday and playing a day later.
Should Tennessee defeat the Buckeyes, the Vols would then advance to challenge top-seeded Oregon in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. Should the Vols topple the Ducks (13-0) out in Pasadena, California, they would venture to the Cotton Bowl national semifinal in Arlington, Texas, on Jan. 10.
The two semifinal winners will vie for the national championship inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday, Jan. 20.
"It's all just really surreal," Vols redshirt junior safety Andre Turrentine said. "Coming into the year, we all dedicated ourselves and had the discipline to work hard every day and, more importantly, be there for each other. We showed up in the times your body or your mind didn't want to show up or didn't feel like showing up.
"Being that backbone for each other has allowed us to make the plays in the moments we needed to put us in this position. We all expected to be exactly where we are, but it's still surreal. This is a huge moment we'll remember for the rest of our lives."
The only season in which Tennessee has played more than 13 games was 2007, when the Vols went 9-3 in the regular season and won the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division race. They lost to LSU in that year's SEC championship before defeating Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl to finish 10-4.
Tennessee would play 16 games by reaching the championship game of the 12-team field, while Clemson, Penn State, SMU and Texas face the prospects of a 17-game schedule should one of those programs continue to advance. Clemson, Penn State, SMU and Texas are also playing next weekend after recently competing in their respective conference championship games.
Staying healthy could mean more than talent and schemes in the weeks ahead for each of the 12 teams still with a chance at a national crown, with that surviving list including Tennessee.
"This means that we've done our job and gotten this place back to where it needs to be and where it's supposed to be," said Vols fifth-year center Cooper Mays, who experienced three victories as a freshman in 2020. "We're right here in the thick of things, and that's all you can ask for at this point."
Said Thomas: "It's amazing. We're in the playoffs. We get another game and another opportunity to go out there and have fun and show that we want to be the best team in the country."
Seldon in portal
Sophomore running back Cameron Seldon entered the transfer portal Saturday, becoming the ninth Vols scholarship player to depart since the end of the regular season.
The 6-foot-2, 222-pounder from Browns Store, Virginia, had 13 carries for 55 yards in January's 35-0 rout of Iowa in the Citrus Bowl and entered the offseason as the primary backup to junior Dylan Sampson. Seldon, however, suffered a shoulder injury during spring practice that required surgery, and he only wound up playing in six contests.
Seldon had 23 carries for 118 yards (5.1 yards per carry) and a touchdown, with most of that occurring against UTC (7-for-47) and UTEP (9-for-44).
Contact David Paschall at [email protected].