Tennessee football is preparing to embark on year six of the Josh Heupel Era. Ahead of the season, expectations are all over the place. Some are skeptical of significant changes on both offense and defense, while others are optimistic about what the Vols return.
In anticipation of fall camp, college football podcaster Josh Pate made his prediction for what he thinks the AP Poll will look like when it’s released ahead of the 2026 season. He has Tennessee as the No. 22 team in the country.
This places UT as the No. 8 team in the SEC. Tennessee is behind No. 1 Texas, No. 7 Georgia, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 10 LSU, No. 11 Alabama and No. 13 Oklahoma. No. 23 Missouri and No. 24 Florida are placed behind the Vols.
Not in the prediction, but in the SEC, are Arkansas, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Mississippi State and South Carolina.
Best guess at AP Preseason top 25 poll pic.twitter.com/XWHUWWguCv
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) July 1, 2026
More From RTI: CBS Sports Gives Game-By-Game Prediction For Tennessee Football, Has Vols Beating Three Major Rivals (And Lane Kiffin)
The expectation is that Heupel will conduct another strong offense in 2026. While he is going to be starting an unproven quarterback, the pieces around the signal-caller position have plenty of experience. Now, it’s a battle between Faizon Brandon, George MacIntyre and Ryan Staub for the starting job.
“I do love the growth from that group,” Heupel said about the quarterbacks after the Orange and White Game. “I love the way that they competed with themselves, with each other. I love the way that they’ve grown every single day. Each of them maybe had a day where it was a little bit below what they had shown and their expectations, too. They responded and came back the next day and were a lot better. So, there’s a lot of positives, a lot of things that they and we have to work on as a football team.”
Tennessee will also have a new defensive coordinator. This offseason, the Vols hired Jim Knowles from Penn State to retool the defense after a rough season in 2025.
