Tennessee Ranked Inside the Top 20 in Latest PFF Top 25

A look at Tennessee's latest pre-season ranking

With student-athletes set for a return to college campuses during the first week of June, there is now a glimmer of hope for a full college football season. With football now approaching, Pro Football Focus has released their way too early top 25, and Tennessee is on the list.

Following an 8-5 season, culminated by a come from behind Gator Bowl win, Tennessee comes in at number 19 on the list. Tennessee is one of eight SEC teams in the top 25, and the Vols come in ahead of Kentucky (20) and Mississippi State (25).

You can see the full top 25 list here.

PFF Wrote: It’s early. We’re not even sure who will play and how many games each team will play in 2020. That said, it’s time to look ahead to the college football season. Using the PFF Elo system that is the base power metric for our NCAA simulation — with allowances for recruiting rankings, returning players and market information — we are happy to provide our all-too-early top 25.

Under the Vols ranking, the site wrote, "Jarrett Guarantano (0.07 win shares in 2019) returns. Will he finally hit on the promise he has shown at times during his career and propel Tennessee forward in 2020?"

Earlier in the year, the site ranked the QB duo of Guarantano and Maurer as the 80th best in College football, saying, "Someone with all the talent in the world, Guarantano couldn’t quite get things rolling in a consistent fashion in 2019. He all too often followed up an amazing game with a dud, and not once this season did he have a repeat performance of the two game grades above 66.0. His highs were among the best in the country with two games above 90.0 overall, but some of his lows rivaled those among the worst in the nation, as he saw four single-game grades lower than 48.0. He’s a career 60.0% completion percentage kind of guy, and that was similar in 2019, but he’s yet to finish a season with a passing grade in our elite grade range despite teasing it in multiple games during his career. If he plays a full season at his highest capacity, Guarantano breaks the top 10 among all quarterbacks. Can that happen in 2020, please?

This landing spot seems right for the Vols, and the site seems to have the same thoughts as everyone else. If Tennessee's QB play is elevated in the slightest, the Vols are going to be tough to handle in 2020.