Volunteers football shock the preseason rankings with another top 10 appearance

Lucas Panzica discusses how Josh Heupel and Tennessee Volunteers football team landed in top 10 of ESPN's future power ranking for 2025 and 2026

Transcript

00:00We are in the time of preseason rankings as we lead up to the college football season and once

00:05again a ranking has come out that has the University of Tennessee maybe a little bit

00:09higher than you would have thought. We'll fill you in next. Hey Lucas Panzeke here from 104.5

00:16The Zone and A to Z Sports. So we told you about a week ago about ESPN's Football Power Index

00:23preseason ranking that had the University of Tennessee in the top 10 right at number 10

00:28in an analytically driven predictive ratings based system that projected the Vols to win 8.7 games

00:36in 2025. Well ESPN has put out yet another ranking this one a power ranking and what ESPN is calling

00:43a future power ranking that ranks every team in college football every power 14 that is

00:49not just for 2025 but for 2026 as well taking into account the totality of the program over the course

00:57of the next two years. So they take a lot into consideration coaching tenures recruiting ranking

01:03current and potential future quarterback situations and the University of Tennessee in this power

01:08ranking for 2025 and 2026 lands at number nine for ESPN. Again a lot higher than you probably would

01:16have predicted. Now Tennessee ranks fourth in the SEC if you look at this ranking top to bottom Texas

01:22being the number one team in the country for the next two years according to ESPN.com. Now for

01:28Tennessee they of course point out the success of Josh Heupel 37 and 15 since he took over at the

01:35University of Tennessee and they point out the quarterback situation that is relatively unknown

01:40really for 2025 and 2026. So it might surprise you that the Vols rank as highly as they do even after

01:46losing Nico Iamaliava but I think largely it rests on the recruiting that Josh Heupel that standard he's

01:53established at Tennessee as a consistent top 15 team in terms of recruiting in the entirety of college

02:00football. It reads here in the ESPN article in terms of roster management that Iamaliava's departure

02:06was jarring and creates more doubt about a Tennessee team that reached the playoff last fall but loses four

02:12players to the NFL draft. It also adds that the Vols didn't do a ton in the portal other than adding

02:17some offensive line additions and star Thomas the running back out of Duke. ESPN here states that

02:22Tennessee is recruiting well with top 15 classes in 2024 and 2025 so there is some belief placed on the

02:30talent that is currently on Tennessee's roster and as we've talked about Tennessee's roster is filled

02:35with talented but unproven players and it's interesting that many national outlets are looking at that

02:42in buying into Tennessee as a top 10 team in college football over the course of the next couple of

02:47years despite all the questions about the roster. I think it does speak to the floor that Josh Heupel

02:53has created at the University of Tennessee but really the thing Tennessee fans care about is the ceiling

02:59and where that is for Tennessee football in 2025 and 2026 remains to be seen. Do you consider the Vols to

03:05be a top 10 team in college football taking into account the livelihood of the program for the next two years

03:11let us know in the comments.