Tennessee’s meager crawl up AP Poll rankings is thanks in part to a handful of voters who snubbed the Vols
A tough crowd among some of the voters.
The Tennessee Vols opened a lot of eyes on Saturday afternoon inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, subduing the Syracuse Orange 45-26 in a game the Vols controlled throughout.
With questions coming into the season about the offense and the quarterback play, the Vols showed they have the potential to be good on that side of the ball this year. Joey Aguilar looked very good in his debut, going 16/28 for 247 yards with 3 touchdowns and no picks. The ground game also churned out 247 yards, while the defense forced two turnovers and scored a touchdown. All in all, it was a solid showing.
But it wasn’t enough in a number of voters’ minds to even merit being ranked, it appears. As Tennessee moved up from 24 to 22 this week in the poll, seven voting media members left the Vols completely off of their ballots, which were published along with the poll on Tuesday. The seven who left the Vols out are Henry Greenstein (Lawrence Journal-World; Kansas), Dylan Sinn (Fort Wayne Journal Gazette; Notre Dame), Josh Furlong (KSL.com; Utah), Stephen Means (Cleveland.com; Ohio State), Kirk Kenney (San Diego Union-Tribune; San Diego State), Pete Yanity (WSPA-TV; Clemson); and Kirk Bohls (Houston Chronicle; Texas).
I find it interesting that so often, what a team did in 2024 is carried over as far as using that as a basis for ranking them 2025. You see it all the time with big-name programs often landing near the top of the rankings without playing a snap and despite significant roster turnover in many cases. However, Tennessee didn’t get the benefit of that doubt despite being a playoff team last year. They also didn’t get the benefit of the doubt for beating Syracuse, a 10-win Power Four team in 2024, on a neutral field. Instead, schools like SMU (beat East Texas A&M 42-13 on Saturday), Navy (beat VMI 52-7), James Madison (beat Weber State 45-10) and Liberty (beat Maine 28-7) find themselves among the top 25 in some of those aforementioned voters’ ballots.
Ultimately, the College Football Playoff rankings are what matter. But the polls and the ballots still show that a number of folks out there simply don’t believe in Tennessee this year despite Week One’s impressive win. That should serve as a little bit of added motivation as the Vols look to return to the Playoff in 2025.
