Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt doesn’t have a lot of optimism towards the Tennessee Volunteers’ 2025 outlook.
He’s not down on the program as a whole by any stretch. That being said, he doesn’t have a ton of faith in what Tennessee can be this season, compared to a 10-win season in 2024, after the way the offseason shook out. Regardless, Klatt isn’t buying new stock for the Vols’ upcoming campaign.
In the most recent episode of The Joel Klatt Show on YouTube, Klatt chose Tennessee as the top team he is selling in a buy-or-sell segment.
“What’s my No. 1 sell team? Remember, this is for one year, based on where they have been,” Klatt said. “And if you look at this team winning 10 games a year ago, averaging over 10 wins the last three seasons, Tennessee is a team that I could see taking a step back.”
The first reason Klatt mentions in his reasoning for this spot for Tennessee is the highly talked-about quarterback situation. After a split with former starter Nico Iamaleava during the spring, the Vols will head into fall camp with App State/UCLA transfer Joey Aguilar and redshirt freshman Jake Merklinger in competition for the opening spot.
“They’ve got a quarterback situation which I don’t love,” Klatt said. “Losing a quarterback that late in the spring is not great. So you can make the argument like, ‘well, we didn’t like Nico anyways.’ Fine. You know what? Fine. That’s your prerogative. But the timing of that was not great because the way that they had to fill that in the transfer portal is in Joey Aguilar. So Aguilar comes into the spring portal, which means he hasn’t had a lot of time with Josh Heupel in that system. He came from App State but then spent a short time at UCLA. So UCLA and Tennessee kind of just trade quarterbacks. And this is a quarterback-centric system that puts a lot of pressure on that quarterback to make post-snap downfield reads on wide receiver choice routes. That’s what the offense is. So that player is vital. Aguilar, by the way, led the country last year with 14 while he was at App State. I think that’s a problem.”
Quarterback wasn’t the only reason that Klatt is choosing to sell on Tennessee this fall, but it was the biggest reason by far. He also mentions having to replace SEC Offensive Player of the Year Dylan Sampson, four starters on the offensive line, and dealing with a young wide receiver room.
Klatt doesn’t have too much concern with the Vols’ defense, especially when Jermod McCoy returns from his injury at some point during the season. He does see a concern with the back half of Tennessee’s schedule, though.
“The schedule is reasonable, based on SEC standards,” Klatt said. “I think they’re probably going to be, like, a 5-1 team going into Alabama in October. That would be projecting a September loss against Georgia. I think we’re all OK with that. But then they would have road games against Bama, Florida, home game against Oklahoma. Not an easy schedule. It’s a conference that’s not going to give you any weeks off, as they love to tell us. But this is an easy team to sell for this year. Again, based on what they’ve been, and where they might be this year. Not a long-term thing. I do believe in Tennessee long-term. I just think that this season could be a difficult one. So they’re going to be a sell for me.”
After going 7-5 in the regular season in Heupel’s first season, Tennessee has rattled off 10 wins, 8 wins, and 10 wins in the last three seasons. Right now, the betting markets have the Vols closer to the 2023 eight-win season than it does the 10-win campaigns in either 2022 or 2024.
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While you may or may not agree with Klatt that Tennessee is a team to sell this season, he does make an important note that his prediction is strictly confined to the 2025 season. Which was smart to do. Even though Tennessee might not have its ideal quarterback situation right now (and, heck, fall camp hasn’t even started yet, so who’s to write anyone or anything off yet), the future outlook of UT still remains strong. The Vols have a lot of talent from the 2025 recruiting class that is just starting to get their feet wet and a Top 15 2026 recruiting class with the 247’s top-ranked quarterback waiting to sign this winter.
Tennessee will undoubtedly have to overcome some obstacles this season to make it back to where they finished in 2022 or 2024. It may end up looking more like the 2023 season. But the long-term future is still bright in Knoxville.
Check out Klatt’s full Tennessee thoughts below:
