Brady Quinn reveals the shocking dark horse of the college football playoffs

FOX analyst and former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn revealed his shocking choice for a dark horse to make the college football playoffs.

Despite the upheaval surrounding college football early in the season, it still feels like a formality when it comes to the teams that will end up taking the four deserved spots in the college football playoffs. For most, that boils down to Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, and probably Michigan.

Surely there will be other challengers because that’s how this sport plays out every year. USC and Oklahoma could potentially race at a CFP berth and not sleep on the likes of BYU or even Clemson given the avenues they could open up for those programs. But FOX Sports analyst and former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn has another sleeper to watch.

At the Saturday Big Noon Kickoff prior to Week 3, Quinn revealed that he believes the Tennessee Volunteers could be a sleeper to make the College Football Playoff based on what he’s seen so far in the 2022 season.

Tennessee football is a dark horse of the college football playoffs, according to Brady Quinn

Here’s what Quinn had to say about his proclamation: via On3.

“You’ll think I’m crazy for saying this, but I love what Tennessee has done,” said Quinn. “They are now building on the foundation they laid last year. You look at Hendon Hooker, their quarterback — he’s averaging nearly 300 yards per game, totaling six touchdowns this season. He’ll be a big reason if they can run the gauntlet of a schedule.

“I got a great win against Pitt last week, a top 25 team on the road. Now they have to play Florida, they have to play Baton Rogue, they have to play Alabama and Georgia… But the bottom line is that if they can stick to that schedule, they’ll have a conversation.”

That’s certainly a bold move considering the Vols are currently ranked 15th on the latest AP Top 25 rankings and had to pick up a win in a dogfight against a backup quarterback against Pitt last week.

At the same time, the work Josh Heupel has done in his short tenure at Knoxville has been impressive, and Hendon Hooker and the offense have been looking undeniably impressive up to this point. And if they can take on the likes of Alabama and Georgia and possibly pull off an upset, the path to a playoff spot is there.

All in all, it’s still week 3, so it’s probably premature to talk about the CFP at this point. But if you ask Quinn, it’s already time to take Tennessee very, very seriously.

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