Tennessee made a surprising move in ESPN’s power rankings after win over Auburn, and Vols fans don’t agree at all
The Tennessee Volunteers improved to 4-1 on Saturday thanks to their 24-14 win over the Auburn Tigers.
Tennessee improved to 4-1 on the season after a tough 24-14 win over Auburn this past Saturday.
The Vols’ lone blemish so far this season is a three-point loss to Texas, the No. 1 team in the nation.
Tennessee has one of the top defenses in the country and they had a chance to win the game on the final play against Texas. Surely ESPN moved the Vols up in their power rankings this week, right?
WRONG.
Very wrong.
Not only did ESPN not move Tennessee up in their power rankings this week, they actually dropped the Vols three spots.
Tennessee went from No. 17 to No. 20 in ESPN’s power rankings after the 10-point win over Auburn.
“The Vols bounced back, beating Auburn after a tough loss at home to No. 1 Texas a week ago,” wrote ESPN’s Alex Scarborough. “The running game, which had powered the offense for the first three weeks before faltering against the Longhorns, came back to life. DeSean Bishop ran for 220 yards on his own against the Tigers. But the biggest change — and the biggest development moving forward — was the decision to bench freshman quarterback Faizon Brandon for sophomore George MacIntyre after Brandon threw an interception. MacIntyre wasn’t spectacular, but he operated the offense well, completing eight of 10 passes for 86 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions. It will be interesting to see what coach Josh Heupel does next week at Arkansas. Will he stick with MacIntyre with a home game against No. 6 Alabama the following week?”
Power rankings don’t mean anything, so it’s not worth getting too upset about where ESPN has the Vols ranked. But I think this ranking shows a misunderstanding of what it takes to win football games. It feels like the Vols are ranked at No. 20 only because their offense hasn’t played well. I get it to some extent, but football is a game with three phases, and the Volunteers have been really good in two of those phases (defense and special teams).
If the offense ever comes around, and there are signs that it will (the scheme is working, the quarterback just has to make the throws), then this Tennessee team can become really dangerous.
