National media outlet throws major shade at Tennessee after first College Football Playoff rankings
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2023 season were released on Tuesday night and the Tennessee Vols came in at No. 17. Tennessee is ranked No. 19 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, so their ranking was a couple of spots higher than some folks expected. 247Sports, in fact, is one of […]
The first College Football Playoff rankings of the 2023 season were released on Tuesday night and the Tennessee Vols came in at No. 17.
Tennessee is ranked No. 19 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, so their ranking was a couple of spots higher than some folks expected.
247Sports, in fact, is one of the media outlets that was apparently expecting the Vols to be ranked lower. They called Tennessee "overrated" after seeing where the Vols landed in the initial College Football Playoff rankings.
From 247Sports: This is about three or four spots too high for the Volunteers, who haven't yet beaten a team currently ranked inside the top 25, but do have a couple wins over squads above .500. The loss at Florida sticks out, as does squandering a multi-touchdown halftime lead at Alabama. Per usual, the committee appears to be looking at the SEC in a favorable light despite this season being below standards across the league.
The loss to Florida was bad. But those losses happen sometimes in college football to non-elite teams. And no one is calling Tennessee an elite team this season.
As for the loss to Alabama? Well, the Vols showed that they can out-scheme and out-play Alabama for a half. But some obviously one-sided officiating, questionable play-calling, and some defensive lapses led to a collapse on the road. It's not the first time that it's happened to a team in Tuscaloosa and it won't be the last time. Despite that awful second half against Alabama, I left that game oddly feeling better about the Vols down the stretch. It was obvious after that game that Tennessee is close to putting it all together. And we saw more evidence of that in the Vols' win against Kentucky last week.
Tennessee still has a chance to win 10 (or maybe even 11) games this season. And they can still win the SEC East with some help. At the very least, the Vols can disrupt the top of the College Football Playoff rankings by beating Georgia in Knoxville later this month. Tennessee seems to be finding its groove at the right time. They obviously still have to build on what they did against Kentucky last week, but we saw signs that the Vols' offense is getting closer to fully "clicking" now that their new offensive pieces are settling into their roles (like wide receiver Dont'e Thornton on the outside).
Overrated feels like a strong word for a Tennessee team that's off to one of its best starts through eight games in the last 17 years.
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