Tennessee Football: Vols’ AP Top 25 Finish About More than Just a Number

Tennessee football’s first Top 25 finish since 2007 was more than just a number, as the 9-4 Volunteers finished the season ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll.

In reality, it doesn’t really mean anything. Butch Jones’s staff hires, recruiting, and returning players are all more important for the Vols with the season over than a random number beside their name at the end of the year.

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But for the morale of the program, finishing ranked in the AP Top 25 was a huge step forward.

Now, for the first time since the Phillip Fulmer days, Vols fans can go back to thinking about SEC and National Championships each season. That’s exactly what will be on everybody’s mind entering year four under Jones.

That Top 25 milestone meant something as a result.

Consider that going into the year, the Vols were ranked in both polls for the first time since 2008 in the preseason. And then, after they fell to 2-3, the consensus was that they are among the most disappointing teams in college football.

But to turn it around and win out and finish the year ranked No. 22, three spots higher than their preseason ranking, shows that they directly met expectations and possibly exceeded them a bit with their 9-4 record.

After losing to the Alabama Crimson Tide to fall to 3-4 on the year, the message was clear for Jones, his staff, and his players: win out. That is the only way they could meet expectations the same way they have each of the past three years.

The Vols did that, and now they enter the offseason as one of the most hyped up teams going into 2016. With so much talent back and much more experience along with a full roster, national championship talk is already beginning.

That Top 25 finish has helped facilitate such talk. Add in the fact that it obviously helps in recruiting, with Jones and his staff trying to make a last-minute final push over the next three weeks, and that ranking is a huge deal.

So before you go saying that it’s just a number, remember that most realistic Vols fans were not thinking of winning a championship this season. They wanted to see marked improvement over the previous two years with a full roster, and that is exactly what they got.

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Getting back to the Top 25 and nine wins was simply the next step in the rebuilding process. They are now on the same level as all the other elite teams fighting to reach the top of that latter, which Alabama just reached this year.

And the No. 22 ranking signifies just that.