If future projections are worth anything, the Tennessee Volunteers are forecasted to have some pretty good success in the sports world this coming fall. On Monday, the Tennessee men’s basketball team was given the No. 7 ranking in ESPN’s way-too-early rankings.
Now, flipping over to the gridiron, Tennessee Athletics stays in the Top 15 again.
USA Today released their college football post-spring way-too-early Top 25 on Tuesday morning. Georgia and Michigan headline the rankings, as expected. The Bulldogs will reload under a quarterback not named Stetson Bennett while the Wolverines look to have a promising roster ahead.
The Vols finished the 2022 season at No. 6 after defeating No. 7 Clemson in the Capital One Orange Bowl. Tennessee only trailed Alabama behind the four teams that made the playoffs in the final rankings.
Now, heading into the 2023 season, USA Today has Tennessee projected as the No. 12 team in their way-too-early rankings. The Vols land one spot behind No. 11 Washington and one spot above No. 13 Oregon. Tennessee also lands as the third-highest team from the SEC only trailing No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 Alabama.
“But Tennessee won’t make the leap from the New Year’s Six to the playoff without fixing a pass defense that allowed the third most yards per game in the league,” USA Today’s Paul Myerberg and Erick Smith wrote. “While the secondary is unlikely to finish in the top third of the conference, for example, the Volunteers can start by buttoning up the defensive lapses that lead to crooked totals put up by Florida, Alabama and South Carolina.”
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The interesting part is that Tennessee actually jumped up two spots from USA Today’s way-too-early rankings immediately following the 2022 postseason on Jan. 10, when they were projected to be ranked at No. 14.
The only other team in the way-too-early rankings from the SEC on Tuesday was LSU at No. 15.
South Carolina, Ole Miss, Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Florida did not make the cut. All of those teams barring Ole Miss will be on Tennessee’s schedule this upcoming season.
The University of Texas-San Antonio, though, which is on Tennessee’s schedule this year, comes in at No. 21 in the rankings – one spot ahead of national champion runner-up TCU. The Roadrunners have 23 wins and a pair of Conference USA championships under their belt in the last two seasons.
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The Vols saw good progress throughout the four weeks of spring camp this spring in Knoxville. Tennessee went through three scrimmages in Neyland Stadium during that time with two of them behind closed doors from the fans and the media. The Orange & White game closed down the spring slate this past April.
“There are a ton of things we’re going to learn from, but I’m really proud of the effort and energy they showed today and throughout the course of spring ball,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said after the spring game. “These guys have been very intentional in the way that they’ve worked since January. They have great comradery, energy and connection. They care about one another. They compete extremely hard with each other, and that’s showing during 14 days of spring ball that we’ve had up to this point.”
For a look at the Tennessee football depth chart projections coming out of spring ball, click the link found here.
