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If you stink at first, it's easy to "get hot" as the season progresses.  It's a garbage argument for teams that don't belong.

Tennessee got really hot later in the season last year.  They finished 6-0, unbeaten and on a ROLL, man.

Schedule was garbage.

South Carolina - garbage

UAB - garbage

Kentucky - garbage

Missouri - garbage

Vanderbilt - garbage

Indiana * - The Hoosiers were pretty good

Kentucky was decent, but missing any kind of actual QB.

basketball school

Kentucky was decent, but missing any kind of actual QB.

Well, I just looked at their schedule, their best "win" was a 29-20 loss to Florida, which was close really.

They lost to USCe.  Beat VT in a bowl game, yay, nearly beat Tenn.

8-5, but the 8 were unimpressive, 3 solid pastries.

I posit if my QB can average just shy of 8 yards a carry and get 171 yards a game, I say pish to your need for a QB.

SP+ rankings of UT's opponents in the streak:
47
67
35
39
106
23

Schedule was garbage.

Tennessee always closes the year strong because of their traditional schedule.  It's a known thing in SEC circles.

They've just played Florida early, Georgia and Bama in the middle, then the SEC Sisters of the Poor in November every year.

I went back to their bad downturn under Dooley and found this nugget: 
Tennessee beat a ranked South Carolina on Halloween in 2009.
The Vols went on to lose their next 17 SEC games played before November (3.5 seasons-worth).

Nationally, I don't think people realize how bad Tennessee fell, as they'd always wind up 6-7 or something similar, often on an upswing to close out the year.  False hope.  But for one 4-year stretch, against anyone with a pulse, the Vols were a joke. 
Even in 2013, when they finally won a pre-November SEC game, it was against South Carolina again....and drunk off of that win, proceeded to lose their next 4 SEC games.  

And none of that includes their 0-8 conference record in 2017.