On Monday night, Indiana was crowned the new national champion of college football. With the bow tied on the 2025 season, ESPN quickly turned the page to the upcoming 2026 season. The publication released its ‘way-too-early top 25 rankings for next season, including Tennessee football.
Tennessee clocks in at No. 24 in the ranking. This mark is the eighth-highest mark in the SEC. The Vols are behind No. 2 Texas, No. 4 Georgia, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 15 LSU and No. 21 Alabama in the conference.
“After a disappointing 2025 season, Volunteers coach Josh Heupel made a big move on defense by firing coordinator Tim Banks and replacing him with former Penn State coordinator Jim Knowles, who helped Ohio State win the 2024 CFP national title,” ESPN’s Mark Schlabach wrote. “The Vols ranked 14th in the SEC in scoring defense (28.8 points) and total defense (397.2 yards) last season. Campbell, Coleman, Gilliam and Lane followed Knowles to UT and should be impact players.
“Heupel didn’t land a big-time quarterback in the transfer portal after pursuing Ty Simpson and Sam Leavitt, which could put his offense in a bad spot. It’s unclear whether Aguilar will get another year of eligibility — he’s a co-plaintiff in former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia’s lawsuit against the NCAA. A hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Feb. 10. Redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and freshman Faizon Brandon will be in the QB room, and Heupel added Colorado’s Ryan Staub at the end of the portal cycle.”
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As Schlabach pointed out, Tennessee’s biggest question is at the quarterback position. The Vols are set up to have a three-man quarterback battle between redshirt-freshman George MacIntyre, true freshman Faizon Brandon and incoming Colorado transfer and redshirt-junior Ryan Staub.
However, while the quarterback position is up in the air and unproven, the pieces around the pending winner are strong. The Vols return a good bit of offensive production, including their lead running back, two starting receivers, a contributing tight end and multiple pieces on the offensive line.
The Vols will also have a new-look defense. The majority of Tennessee’s transfer portal efforts have been on that side of the ball, with Jim Knowles taking over as defensive coordinator. This includes the four Penn State transfers that Schlabach mentioned, Amare Campbell, Xavier Gilliam, Chaz Coleman and Dejuan Lane.
