There’s differing opinions on Tennessee basketball entering the 2026 season. One popular college football analyst is a bit lower on Tennessee and did not include the Vols in his first top 25 rankings of the offseason. Josh Pate— host of the Josh Pate Podcast and contributor for On3, ESPN and Yahoo! — released his way-too-early rankings Monday without Tennessee.
While the Vols were not in the top 25, they play five teams in the way-too-early rankings including No. 2 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 10 LSU, No. 13 Alabama and No. 23 Vanderbilt. Pate had xx more SEC teams in his top 25 including No. 7 Georgia, No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 21 Missouri.
As future CFB Commissioner I need to be transparent about my early top 25 thoughts pic.twitter.com/Fhp3OTIm0A
— Josh Pate (@JoshPateCFB) February 2, 2026
The Vols have been a true borderline top 25 team in way-too-early rankings. Following the national championship, Tennessee was included in six of the 10 way-too-early top 25 rankings that we compiled. The Vols’ highest ranking was No. 19 from Athlon Sports.
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Tennessee is coming off a 2025 season where they posted an 8-5 (4-4 SEC) record. The Vols struggled against quality competition a season ago with their five losses coming against the five FBS teams with winning records that they played. Tennessee’s best wins were road victories at Mississippi State and Florida.
It’s a highly important sixth year for head coach Josh Heupel. The Vols remade their defensive roster and coaching staff after a disappointing 2025 season while bolstering their mostly set offensive roster.
There’s reasons to be optimistic about the defense under first-year coordinator Jim Knowles, but there’s also uncertainty with all the new players and coaches. Tennessee has much more consistency on the offensive side of the ball. However, quarterback is a major question after Tennessee missed out on transfer portal targets.
Rising redshirt freshman George MacIntyre is the favorite to start and has a solid supporting cast. The Vols return four of five starters on the offensive line as well as talented receivers Mike Matthews and Braylon Staley.
