The Tennessee Vols aren’t expected to be ranked highly in the official pre-season college football top 25 polls that will come out later this summer.

Tennessee is looking to rebound after going 8-5 last season.

The Vols have plenty of talent, but they also have a lot of question marks, such as who is going to start at quarterback? How will the defense perform under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles? Will the pass rush be good enough?

Those questions are the top reason why Tennessee is ranked outside of the top 20 in many of the “early” top 25 rankings we’ve seen from various media outlets.

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt explains his ranking of the Vols

Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt revealed his latest top 25 on Monday and he has Tennessee coming in at No. 25.

Klatt said one of the big reasons he doesn’t have the Vols ranked higher is because of the program’s quarterback situation (Tennessee will start either redshirt freshman George MacIntyre or true freshman Faizon Brandon).

“Tennessee has been very consistent, at least on offense,” said Klatt. “Josh Heupel took over five years ago. Tennessee has been the number one scoring offense in the country over that time frame. But the big question for Tennessee is at quarterback this year, and this is why they’re they’re not higher. It looks to be down to two players, both of them very little to no experience, redshirt freshman George MacIntyre and five-star true freshman Faizon Brandon. Now listen, I think Josh Heupel will be fine on offense, but remember, it is a very quarterback-driven offense because of that deep choice type scheme that they like to run.

“On defense, they bring in new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. He was at Ohio State and won a national championship [during the 2024 season]. He was with Penn State, and that did not work out. And now Jim Knowles is in Knoxville with Tennessee. There’s a lot of talent in Tennessee. They’ve been one of the best recruiting programs in the country over the last few years. They’ve recruited six five-star players over the last four cycles. They’ve got four straight classes in the top 15. The schedule, it’s not terrible. But I do like the fact that they get a lot of their tough opponents at home. Three of their four hardest games are in Neyland: Texas, LSU, and Alabama.”

It’s more than fair to be skeptical on Tennessee due to the quarterback situation. No one — not Heupel, fans, media, or even the players themselves — knows how the Vols’ offense will perform this fall with either Brandon or MacIntyre under center.

For that reason, I think Klatt’s take on Tennessee is as fair as it possibly can be at this point in the offseason.