After securing a victory over Clemson in the Orange Bowl, Tennessee finished the season ranked No. 6 in the final AP Top 25 poll of the season. The Vols only trailed the four playoff teams and Alabama in the final rankings.
A new season is on the horizon, though, as teams rebuilt and reloaded throughout the course of the offseason.
With fall camps starting around the country this week, including Tennessee, CBS Sports’ Chip Patterson released his 2023 Preseason CBS Sports 133 list.
Tennessee lands at No. 13 in the rankings done by Patterson and CBS Sports. The Vols come in as the fourth-highest team from the SEC behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 4 LSU, and No. 5 Alabama. While each of the four teams will look fairly different than last year, the Vols went 2-1 against those three teams during the 2022 season.
For some insight into who jumped Tennessee between the final AP rankings and CBS Sports’ preseason rankings, those teams include LSU, Southern California, Penn State, Florida State, Clemson, Washington, Texas, and Utah. The reason why there are eight teams listed for the seven spots that Tennessee dropped is that TCU dropped all the way down to No. 17 after getting beat down by Georgia in the 2022-2023 National Championship game.
A total of six teams from the Southeastern Conference land in CBS Sports’ preseason rankings Top 25:
- No. 1 Georgia
- No. 4 LSU
- No. 5 Alabama
- No. 13 Tennessee
- No. 21 Ole Miss
- No. 24 Texas A&M
Future SEC team Texas comes in at No. 11 in the rankings while Oklahoma is right on the outside looking in at No. 26.
Right behind Oklahoma is Kentucky landing at No. 28 in the rankings.
Here’s a look at where Tennessee’s 2023 schedule lands in the CBS Sports’ preseason rankings from Chip Patterson this week:
- Week 1: vs Virginia – No. 89
- Week 2: vs Austin Peay – NR
- Week 3: at Florida – No. 41
- Week 4: vs UTSA – No. 31
- Week 5: vs South Carolina – No. 29
- Week 6: BYE
- Week 7: vs Texas A&M – No. 24
- Week 8: at Alabama – No. 5
- Week 9: at Kentucky – No. 29
- Week 10: vs UConn – No. 100
- Week 11: at Missouri – No. 49
- Week 12: vs Georgia – No. 1
- Week 13: vs Vanderbilt – No. 72
The interesting note here, as we at Rocky Top Insider have said throughout the summer on several occasions, is that the non-conference game against UTSA could be one of the sneakier challenges that Tennessee has been hit by in a while. The Roadrunners bring an excellent offense led by a veteran quarterback to Knoxville in September.
Check out CBS Sports’ preseason 133 rankings here.
5 Responses
The VOLS beat the brakes off of LSU at their own house, how dare you rank us like this! We also had victory against Alabama, close but still a win! I totally disagree with this post. VOLS are back baby, come getcha some crow… eat it, just eat it! You’ll see!
Of COURSE the national sports media is underestimating the Vols–I’ve seen it for the 20+ years that I’ve been a Vol fan. But I’m ok with it, because the more we get disrespected, the more we win. So yeah, keep on y’all. See ya in the top 5 😉.
I think CBS is ranking Tennessee about right considering that there are numerous changes in our roster. Yes we did give LSU a bad day in Baton Rouge, but their improvement since has been phenomenal. I believe at this point LSU has a better program, a better coach, a better system, and the loudest stadium experience in the country. Go Vol’s, bleed Orange, but always keep a clear vision. Maybe we’ll do better, but don’t look for more than 10-2, and there are some other worrisome teams on the schedule.
Isn’t it great to finally see our vols in the top 25 I’m happy just to have a team that is considered we all remember the dark cloud over Rocky top so let’s go shocked the world at the end of the season is what counts Go Vols
Joe Milton will beat down the competition with his arm and his toughness