Tennessee Ranked Top-10 In Coaches Poll To Begin The Year
College football starts this month, and with each passing day, the excitement grows. We're in the "preseason festivities" time of the calendar when all-conference teams come out, media days reveal new storylines, and fall camp ramps up. Speaking of annual pastimes, the USA Today Coaches Poll came out on Monday morning, and there were several interesting wrinkles regarding the Tennessee Volunteers.
The Vols came in at No. 10, good enough to slot them as the No. 4 SEC squad in the preseason. Georgia, Alabama, and LSU all came ahead of the orange and white, which would reflect in the conference odds' rankings. Tennessee came ahead of other powers like Washington, Texas, Notre Dame, and Oregon, all heading into 2023 in similar situations to Tennessee. The Vols are entering year No. 3 of Josh Heupel, and the momentum around Knoxville, Tennessee, is evident. This is the first year in a long time that Tennessee is a preseason power, and you can honestly argue for them to be higher.
For instance, Clemson comes into the year ranked No. 9 by the coaches. The Tigers do have a storied tradition under head coach Dabo Swinney. Whenever anyone in the national media counts them out, they deliver an 11-win season with a College Football Playoff berth. They could do that this season, but 2022 told us that not everything was perfect for them in the Palmetto State. They lost their top two defensive linemen, Bryan Bresee and Myles Murphy, to the first round of the NFL Draft this offseason. Clemson also lost three games (Tennessee, South Carolina, Notre Dame) in their final six games last year. Sophomore quarterback Cade Klubnik was a five-star evaluation coming out of high school, but we don't know with certainty that he will reach the high bar that so many Clemson signal callers set before him.
Tennessee QB Joe Milton III during SEC Media Days in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 20, 2023. (Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel of USA TODAY Sports)
USA Today Coaches Poll
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Alabama
- Ohio State
- LSU
- USC
- Penn State
- Florida State
- Clemson
- Tennessee
Overall, the poll feels fair to start the year. Tennessee is still waiting to see what contributions they can get from quarterback Joe Milton III. Those contributions may well be enough to push them closer to the top-5 range, but we don't know that because we haven't seen it. Heupel has established enough credibility as a head coach and play caller for us to consider the Vols a top-10 caliber football team ahead of the season - he's never had an offense finish outside the top-10 in college football in points per game.
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