Tennessee Vols get hit with immediate disrespect by ESPN after Ohio State wins College Football Playoff Championship Game
The 2024 college football season officially came to an end on Monday night with the Ohio State Buckeyes' win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff championship game. And it took less than 10 minutes after the game ended for ESPN to hand the Tennessee Vols some bulletin board material for […]
The 2024 college football season officially came to an end on Monday night with the Ohio State Buckeyes' win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff championship game.
And it took less than 10 minutes after the game ended for ESPN to hand the Tennessee Vols some bulletin board material for the 2025 season.
Immediately after Ohio State's win against Notre Dame, ESPN's Mark Schlabach revealed his early 2025 top 25 college football rankings.
And the Volunteers weren't in the top 10. In fact, they were barely in the top 20.
Schlabach has Tennessee at No. 19 in his early top 25 rankings, one spot behind the Florida Gators.
The longtime ESPN college football writer says it wouldn't be surprising to see Tennessee "take a step back in 2025".
From ESPN: After winning nine games or more for the third straight season and reaching the CFP, Josh Heupel has some work to do this offseason, especially on offense. It wouldn't be surprising to see UT take a step back in 2025. The Volunteers are losing Sampson, the SEC's leading rusher with 1,491 yards and 22 touchdowns, and their top three receivers (McCoy and Thornton exhausted their eligibility, and White entered the transfer portal). Three starting offensive linemen will also have to be replaced. The Vols added former Arizona guard Wendell Moe Jr. and five-star tackle prospect David Sanders. There's a solid nucleus coming back on defense, but Tennessee will miss Pearce's production on the edge. The Volunteers will open the season against Syracuse in Atlanta, and they'll play Georgia at home and Alabama and Florida on the road.
There's no doubt that Tennessee has some big questions to answer this offseason. The Vols have to figure out a way to replace Cooper Mays at center. Tennessee also received the brutal news last week that star cornerback Jermod McCoy tore his ACL, putting his 2025 season in jeopardy (we will see how his recovery goes).
But after the last four seasons, I think Josh Heupel and his staff have earned the benefit of the doubt. I'm not predicting that Tennessee is going to reach the College Football Playoff in 2025 — it's far too early to even think about those predictions — but a UT team that's about to secure it's second top 10 finish in the last three seasons deserves a little more respect than this.
Especially when you consider that ESPN has Tennessee behind Texas, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida in their early top 25. The Vols' current coaching staff proved they can make the playoff. The coaching staffs at LSU, South Carolina, Alabama, and Florida have yet to prove that.
Of course, while Vols fans may disagree with these rankings, they're really a gift for Tennessee's coaches and players.
The best teams in sports thrive off being disrespected. We see in the NFL every winter. And we just saw it with Ohio State in the College Football Playoff.
It's clear that no one is going to believe in the Vols this offseason. Tennessee needs to let that disrespect fuel them as they enter Heupel's fifth season.
