Tennessee senior doesn't think Vols should be ranked below Alabama and LSU in preseason top 25 polls
Most 2023 preseason top 25 polls have the Tennessee Vols ranked below the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers. That's despite the fact that Tennessee beat Alabama and LSU last season (in LSU's case, the Vols walloped the Tigers 40-13 in Baton Rouge). Tennessee senior tight end Jacob Warren was recently asked during an […]
Most 2023 preseason top 25 polls have the Tennessee Vols ranked below the Alabama Crimson Tide and the LSU Tigers.
That's despite the fact that Tennessee beat Alabama and LSU last season (in LSU's case, the Vols walloped the Tigers 40-13 in Baton Rouge).
Tennessee senior tight end Jacob Warren was recently asked during an appearance on "Off the Hook Sports" how he feels about the Vols being ranked below two teams that UT beat last season.
Warren suggested it's "absurd" that the Vols aren't ranked higher than Alabama or LSU.
"I don't make the rankings — that's not my deal — but it's a bit absurd to me," said Warren about the Vols being ranked below teams they beat last season. "Just because — you gotta go on what's happened, the most recent thing that's happened. And we had the same debate last year whenever they were coming out with the final rankings for the season and they ranked Alabama above us. And then you look through the list of things and it says okay, you know, strength of schedule and point differential and head to head win and all these things are lining up for us. And they're still gonna get placed ahead of us just because of that of the title, just because of the name."
"I think that they've earned it in a way," continued Warren. "They've won more national championships than we have in the past few years. They've won more SEC championships. They've done all the things that they've done. They beat us every year except for last year. So it's like, do you go on on what it has been in the past and just, you know, inherently what the program is? Or do you go with what it is right now? Right now, we beat Alabama last year. We beat LSU last year. And so to me, makes sense — you should rank us higher. That's just my thing. That's how I feel about it. And that's my opinion. Some may feel differently, but at the same time, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. Because we're still gonna play them. And we're still going to try to beat them and they're still going to try to beat us. Once we come out on the end of it, we'll talk about rankings when it's time to go to the playoffs."
This is just something else that Tennessee can use as motivation. The Vols seem to always play with a chip on their shoulder under Josh Heupel so this will just add to that list.
I think it's worth noting, by the way, that Warren's comment about the rankings not mattering until the end of season is important. He's absolutely right. The Vols might want that respect right now because of what they accomplished last season, but the only respect that really matters is the respect that Tennessee earns during the 2023 season. Those wins over Alabama and LSU in 2022 aren't going to help the Vols get into this year's playoff. Ultimately, they have to beat Alabama again if they're going to accomplish something special in Heupel's third season at the helm.
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Featured image via Saul Young/News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services
