With the 2025 college football season officially over, we’re now in the retrospective week as organizations and analysts comb back through the season to find some of the best players, moments, teams, and plays from the year.
It’s certainly difficult not to immediately tie Fernando Mendoza and Indiana’s remarkable run under Curt Cignetti to the overall lasting impression of the season. And, for good reason. Mendoza, the Heisman Trophy winner for the season, helped lead his program to a 16-0 record with plenty of highlight-worthy plays and games. It’s no surprise to see ESPN rank him as the best player in the sport last season.
A quartet of ESPN analysts, including Bill Connelly, David Hale, Adam Rittenberg and Max Olson, ranked the Top 100 players from the college football season on Friday. The list ranges from Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 to James Madison running back Wayne Knight at No. 100.
If you make a full run through the list, though, you won’t see a single Tennessee player. Not one player from Josh Heupel’s Volunteers program made the cut for the retrospective Top 100 from ESPN.
Tennessee sits alongside Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, and South Carolina as the SEC programs without a representative on the list. The highest-ranked SEC player on the list was Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss at the No. 7 spot.
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Tennessee’s lack of representation doesn’t mean that the Vols went without individual success stories throughout the season. This isn’t a case for who should’ve made the list and who shouldn’t have made it, but here’s a look at some of Tennessee’s standout players from the 2025 campaign.
QB Joey Aguilar, Senior
Stats: 3,595 passing yards, 24 passing touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 101 rushing yards, 4 rushing touchdowns
Aguilar transferred into Tennessee after spring camp and had to win a quarterback battle over redshirt-freshman Jake Merklinger and true freshman George MacIntyre during spring camp to win the starting nod for the Vols. After just one game, though, it was quick to see that his aggressive, gunslinger mentality could help bring the passing game back to the forefront of the Vols’ offense. Aguilar wasn’t perfect, which is noted by his 10 interceptions throughout the season. But he also did an impressive job of conducting Tennessee’s offense. Aguilar threw for 300+ yards on four occasions this year, including 371 against Georgia, 335 against Mississippi State, 396 against Kentucky, and 393 against Oklahoma. He finished the season as Tennessee’s third-leading all-time single-season passer, trailing only Peyton Manning (1997) and Tyler Bray (2012). Aguilar led the SEC in regular-season passing yards.
RB DeSean Bishop, Redshirt Sophomore
Stats: 182 carries, 1,076 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns, 135 receiving yards
DeSean Bishop split carries with Peyton Lewis and Star Thomas for a good chunk of the season, but was really handed the reins in the final stretch. Bishop averaged 11.4 carries per game for Tennessee’s first nine contests, but ramped that up to an average of 19.74 for the Vols’ final four games. He also became Tennessee’s third-straight thousand-yard rusher after Jaylen Wright and Dylan Sampson, with big showings against Arkansas (146 yards), Alabama (123 yards), and Florida (116 yards). Bishop proved himself to be a player who wasn’t afraid to get dirty, wasn’t afraid to take a hit, and wasn’t afraid to do whatever he needed to help the offense.
CB Colton Hood, Redshirt Sophomore
Stats: 50 tackles, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, one interception, one pick six, eight pass deflections
Playing the second-most snaps on the defense behind only fellow cornerback Ty Redmond, Colton Hood stepped up in a big way for the Vols’ defense this year. He took over the No. 1 CB role after Rickey Gibson’s injury and flourished with it, providing Tennessee with a standout player against some of the SEC’s top receivers. Teams spent a good portion of the season picking on true freshman Ty Redmond, but that was also because Hood was on the other side of the field. Hood burst onto the scene with a scoop-and-score against Syracuse in the season opener and also found the endzone on a pick-six against Mississippi State.
WR Chris Brazzell II, Redshirt Junior
Stats: 62 receptions, 1,017 receiving yards, 9 touchdowns
Brazzell had a true breakout season as Tennessee’s biggest and longest receiver during the Vols’ 2025 campaign. After recording just 333 yards in his first season in Knoxville, he more than tripled that this past season with Aguilar at the helm. Brazzell became a true deep threat for the Vols and showed that off early and often in the first half of the season. He racked up 125 yards against ETSU, 177 yards against Georgia, 105 yards against Mississippi State, and 138 yards against Kentucky. Teams eventually began to put more coverage on Brazzell, but that only opened things up more for Braylon Staley and Mike Matthews. Brazzell’s big season has helped vault him up to a potential first-round pick in recent NFL mock drafts.
