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SEC Power Rankings after Week 1 of 2019: Yes, Vols are tanking

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - AUGUST 31: The Tennessee Volunteers warm up before the season opener against the Georgia State Panthers at Neyland Stadium on August 31, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images
Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images /

The Tennessee Volunteers are tanking in our SEC Power Rankings following week one of the 2019 college football season in the Southeastern Conference.

If there is anything Tennessee football can take solace in, it’s the fact that the Southeastern Conference had a bad first weekend. That likely won’t help the Vols in our SEC Power Rankings following this week, however.

From a talent perspective, this is still the toughest league in the United States. Nobody would deny that if they went back and analyzed the recruiting and NFL talent overall. But sometimes the pressure of success can be overwhelming.

And that pressure led to a horrendous start for some teams, which actually made our SEC Power Rankings a bit easier after a week into the season. Now, what happens after week two could end up being a totally different story.

To be fair, it wasn’t all bad. The Auburn Tigers beat the Oregon Ducks in the only game nationwide all weekend that featured two top 25 teams. Meanwhile, a few other teams more than did what they were supposed to do as heavy favorites.

But the middle of the pack to the bottom of the conference, particularly the SEC East but also some in the SEC West, had a very bad weekend. And the Vols were just the worst example of a horrendous start for many of these teams.

Our power rankings will remind people of the rankings that were there last year, but they will not have any impact on these rankings. As we said to start the year with our preseason power rankings in the conference, everything about the rankings will be based on what happened this year. Only the preseason took last year into account.

Power rankings are obviously based on how you’re playing at the current time. They take the current season into account, but each week gets less important the further into the past it goes. One week in, a lot could change. But let’s analyze where things are right now. These are our SEC Power Rankings following the first week of 2019 for college football.

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