Former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback turned college football analyst Greg McElroy made it pretty clear this week how he feels about the Tennessee Vols in 2026.

And I think it’s worth hearing him out.

McElroy ruffles the feathers of Vols fans from time to time — his Bama fandom tends to come through when he’s calling games for ESPN — but after writing about Tennessee football for the last 14 years, and seeing all kinds of good and bad takes, I truly believe the former Alabama quarterback is one of the best analysts in the business.

He was spot-on in his analysis last season of former Vols defensive coordinator Tim Banks, and he nailed his prediction for Tennessee’s College Football Playoff matchup against Ohio State in 2024 (those are just a couple of examples).

No one bats 1.000 in this business, but when it comes to breaking down on-the-field action, I think McElroy is pretty good.

Greg McElroy thinks it’s time to start considering that Tennessee could be pretty good in 2026

Tennessee football isn’t receiving much hype ahead of the 2026 season — mostly because of the unknowns at quarterback and on defense — but McElroy thinks the Volunteers could be better than advertised this fall.

And it’s mainly because he thinks Tennessee will have fewer busts on defense under new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.

“I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the Volunteers this year,” said McElroy this week on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning. “I feel like several teams in the SEC right now are kind of flying under the radar a little bit, and I’m not sure there’s a team that’s flying under the radar more than Tennessee. I know it sounds crazy. I know it sounds nuts.

“When you really look at their biggest issue last year, it’s not all that dissimilar to Texas. … You know what Tennessee’s biggest problem was last year? Busts on defense. … Everybody thinks Texas is going to be incredible (in 2026), and that all of a sudden their woes on defense are going to be completely fixed because Will Muschamp has arrived. Well, with Tennessee, what if their woes on defense are no more as well? They bring in Jim Knowles, who’s universally appreciated and respected — everybody thinks he’s great. I certainly do. I think he’s awesome — a really good coach.”

“I think they’ll be a lot more responsible,” continued McElroy. “I think they’re probably going to go with an approach that’s slightly ‘less is more.’ They can still be an attacking group. I think what people don’t realize is that you can still be an attacking group without being insane. … I think Tennessee can be an attacking defense. But they’re not going to be attacking in the same way that they’re going to do things that are completely unsound. I think that was some of the problem last year with Tennessee.”

McElroy also thinks the Vols could be much improved at quarterback with either George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon under center.

“The big question about Tennessee, and I know it’s very different than Texas because Texas is universally considered a national championship contender, people think Tennessee is a 7-5 football team,” said McElroy. “But what if they’re better at quarterback? Whoever they end up running out there as the starting quarterback has at least been in the system and has gone through a spring practice — they have 15 extra practices (that last year’s starter Joey Aguilar didn’t get last spring because he was at UCLA). … Joey Aguilar ended up having a pretty dang good year. So I think we need to maybe wake up a little bit and think, ‘Hey, maybe Tennessee’s got a little something going here.’ I’m not going to go as far as to pick them to win the SEC, but the question marks that surround Tennessee right now, I already think they might be in a better spot than they were last year going into the season.

“It might be worth keeping a slightly closer eye on Tennessee because I think they are flying under the radar in a really big way. And I did not love some of the things that Tennessee did at times last year — especially on the defensive side of the ball. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem this year. I think they’re going to be pretty dang tough out. If you look at their schedule, I know it’s tough one. It’s always a tough schedule, and the SEC with nine conference games is going to be a beast. But it’s time to start waking up to the possibility that Tennessee might be pretty good. Because they are right now not being talked about nearly enough, in my opinion.”

Quarterback play will ultimately determine how far the Vols go this season. But after hearing McElroy’s confidence in Knowles and the defense, it makes you realize that neither MacIntyre nor Brandon need to play like a superstar in 2026 for Tennessee to be one of the better teams in the SEC.