Tennessee Football has exceeded expectations to start the 2025 season. The Volunteers are still waiting for their first true SEC test, which will come this weekend, but it’s undoubtedly been a hot start with many positive takeaways from the first eight quarters of the season.
Tennessee handled its business against Syracuse with a 45-26 win in the season opener, and then set a modern-era program record with 72 points in a 72-17 win over ETSU in the home opener on Saturday afternoon.
Each week, ESPN’s Heather Dinich is projecting what the College Football Playoffs will look like at said point in the season. She had Tennessee tagged as the No. 8 team in the country last week, but moved the Volunteers up on Saturday night after the dust settled from the games.
Dinich now has Tennessee projected as the No. 7 team/seed in the country following the massive win over the Bucs. That projection sets up Tennessee for a hypothetical first-round matchup in Knoxville against No. 10 Notre Dame, with the winner moving on to face No. 2 Miami in the quarterfinal round.
Tennessee is the highest-ranked team from the SEC in the projections, excluding conference champion LSU with a first-round bye. The Vols sit above No. 8 Georgia and No. 9 Texas in Dinich’s projections.
“The Vols have scored at least 45 points in back-to-back games,” Dinich writes. “They have not missed a step without quarterback Nico Iamaleava. The season-opening win against Syracuse was respectable, but the Orange needed overtime to beat UConn in Week 2, so the jury is still out on the true value of that nonconference win. It’s still better, though, than what some other contenders are lining up and knocking down. That wasn’t the case on Saturday, when the Vols hammered FCS opponent East Tennessee State.”
ESPN’s Allstate Playoff Predictor has Tennessee with a 51% chance to make the playoffs.
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Unlike some other teams that won’t see a true test until later in the year, the Volunteers are staring one down in the face in the immediate future. Tennessee’s upcoming home game against Georgia this Saturday isn’t a do-or-die for the Vols’ playoff chances, but it is a big measuring stick to see how close or how far Tennessee actually is from that hosting-seed playoff projection.
Many were hesitant about picking Tennessee to return to the College Football Playoffs this season with all the offseason turnover and questions that surrounded the program during the spring and the summer. Some of those questions have been answered, though. Or at the very least, they’re trending in the right direction.
Tennessee’s passing attack looks smooth and comfortable. Transfer quarterback Joey Aguilar has more than 500 passing yards through the first two games as he looks solid running Josh Heupel’s offense – An offense that hasn’t even begun to show everything in its playbook. Tennessee’s receivers also look capable of making big impacts, too. One important note from the first eight quarters of the season is how much more confident returning wide receiver Chris Brazzell is in his second year in the offense, leading to his team-leading 14 receptions and 187 yards on the season.
Tennessee is dealing with some injury concerns here in the early portion of the season, though. The Vols project to be without star cornerbacks Rickey Gibson III and Jermod McCoy for next week’s game against Georgia, and we’re still waiting for updates around offensive tackle David Sanders Jr., defensive tackle Jaxson Moi, and defensive lineman Daevin Hobbs.
Either way, Tennessee has looked strong in its first two matchups this season. We’ll see what Josh Heupel’s unit looks like with a big SEC test against Georgia on Saturday in Knoxville.
Check out Heather Dinich’s full College Football Playoff projections here.
