Tennessee Football didn’t have a game this weekend, but the Vols were winners during an upset-heavy weekend in college football.
Tennessee has been stuck at No. 15 in the rankings for four straight weeks with a loss to Georgia and a win over Mississippi State. But after a trio of Top 15 teams fell during Week 6 action, the Volunteers are on the rise.
Josh Heupel’s Volunteers are now spotted at No. 12 in the AP Poll on Sunday afternoon. It’s the same spot as their landing spot in Sunday’s USA Today Coaches Rankings, as well.
Tennessee benefited from Penn State’s fall from No. 7 to unranked, Texas’s drop from No. 9 to unranked, and Iowa State’s fall from No. 14 to No. 22.
The Nittany Lions suffered a brutal loss to Nico Iamaleava’s unranked UCLA squad, while unranked Florida bested Arch Manning’s Longhorns in The Swamp on Saturday afternoon. The Cyclones dropped their first game of the season on the road to unranked Cincinnati this weekend. All three games allowed Tennessee to bump up in the rankings despite having an open date on Saturday.
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The Vols are back in action this weekend with a return to SEC play. Tennessee will host Arkansas and newly-appointed interim head coach Bobby Petrino on Saturday afternoon in Neyland Stadium. The Vols will have revenge on their mind with last year’s upset loss to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, but Tennessee absolutely cannot look ahead to the following week’s Third Saturday in October matchup in Alabama. The Vols have to handle business this weekend before anything else.
Tennessee is 4-1 on the season with one of their two open dates now in the rear view mirror. The Vols began the season with wins over Syracuse and ETSU before falling to Georgia in overtime. Tennessee bounced back with a win over UAB and then picked up its first true road win at Mississippi State in the following week.
Tennessee’s ability to stave off a loss in Starkville allowed the Volunteers to escape September without an elusive second loss, keeping their door to the playoffs open. The second half of the schedule will present many more challenges, though, including a revenge game against Arkansas, a trip to Alabama, a home game against Oklahoma, a trip to Florida, and a home game against Vanderbilt.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for a return to game-week coverage with the Arkansas game coming up this Saturday.
Check out the full Week 7 AP Poll here.
