The Athletic drops Tennessee Football in their early 2024 Top 25
The Athletic updated their early 2024 Top 25 rankings this week due to all the coaching movement that has gone down over the last several weeks. And the Tennessee Vols, despite recently adding a couple of key transfers in Stanford defensive lineman Jaxson Moi and LSU offensive tackle Lance Heard, fell a spot. The Athletic's […]
The Athletic updated their early 2024 Top 25 rankings this week due to all the coaching movement that has gone down over the last several weeks.
And the Tennessee Vols, despite recently adding a couple of key transfers in Stanford defensive lineman Jaxson Moi and LSU offensive tackle Lance Heard, fell a spot.
The Athletic's Stewart Mandel moved Tennessee from No. 16 to No. 17 in his Top 25.
Mandel's reason for dropping Tennessee appears to be because he thinks the Vols "lost more" in the transfer portal than they gained.
And that's simply not accurate.
From The Athletic: Tennessee arguably lost more than it gained, but Notre Dame TE Holden Staes, LSU T Lance Heard, Oregon State CB Jermod McCoy and Middle Tennessee S Jakobe Thomas will vie for starting jobs. Touted QB Nico Iamaleava began his reign in the Vols’ Citrus Bowl win over Iowa. Key returnees include RB Dylan Sampson and WRs Squirrel White and Bru McCoy, C Cooper Mays and All-SEC DE James Pearce Jr. (10 sacks).
If you're looking at Tennessee from a distance, it's understandable why Mandel might think that the Vols lost more than they gained in the portal.
But folks who follow Tennessee football closely know that none of the Vols' portal departures came as a major surprise. Most of UT's portal losses came from the secondary, a unit that played poorly at times last season. Tennessee picked up three defensive backs in the portal, including a cornerback in Jermod McCoy that might be one of the most underrated portal pickups in college football (McCoy saw significant action and made a couple of interceptions as a true freshman at Oregon State last season).
The only loss that came as somewhat of a surprise was offensive tackle Gerald Mincey, who initially planned to return to UT for the 2024 season (he has since transferred to Kentucky). But Tennessee may have upgraded at the tackle position by landing Heard, a former five-star recruit.
Essentially, the Vols didn't really lose anyone they were trying to keep.
Tennessee, though, probably doesn't mind being ranked outside of the top 15 heading into the 2024 season. They seem to play better under Josh Heupel when there's some doubt from national pundits.
2 programs standing out for 4-star QB Madden Iamaleava, brother of Vols QB Nico Iamaleava
Nico’s little brother hopes to commit before end of the summer
