SEC Power Rankings for 2018 college football preseason

Tennessee football finished last place in the SEC in 2017, suffering its worst season in school history and going winless in the conference. After firing Butch Jones, the Vols are starting over once again, for the fourth time since firing Phillip Fulmer.

They enter this season, though, coming off probably more drama than anybody. It started right after last year’s season ended, in which fans revolted against the hiring of Greg Schiano, forcing the athletic department to change course. The result of that was a coup that got Fulmer in as A.D. and now Jeremy Pruitt in as head coach.

So the Vols enter this year with a new head coach, more offseason drama than anybody in the conference and coming off a last place finish in the conference last year. As a result, we had no choice but to keep them dead last in our SEC Power Rankings.

A new coach isn’t the only thing facing this team. They also have a quarterback competition that still hasn’t been resolved, and this team had to undergo schematic changes on offense and defense this past spring and in fall camp. So everything is working against the program.

However, this could all change quickly. As they enter a new era, UT opens the season against a major Top 25 opponent in the West Virginia Mountaineers. An upset there would vault this team up these rankings. A loss, however, couldn’t do much. Hey, they’re already in last place. There’s nowhere to go but up.