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Tennessee football’s No. 25 AP ranking a scary nod to past

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 05: A Tennessee Volunteers megaphone sits on the sideline during the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 05: A Tennessee Volunteers megaphone sits on the sideline during the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Neyland Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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This isn’t the first time the Tennessee football Volunteers have been ranked there.

On Monday, Tennessee football fans celebrated the respect they got. The Vols came in at No. 25 in the preseason AP Poll, one not adjusted for teams not playing, after coming one spot out of the top 25 in the Coaches Poll earlier in the month.

Only twice since the AP Poll expanded to a top 25 back in 1989 rather than a top 20 have the Vols been ranked right at No. 25 in the preseason polls. Both of them came in this decade, and they came under a certain coach.

The last time Tennessee football came in at No. 25 in the AP Poll was 2017. We all know what happened there. They fell to a 4-8 record, going 0-8 in the conference for the worst season in school history, which resulted in Butch Jones being fired. They were No. 24 in the Coaches Poll to start that season rather than No. 26.

That alone would concern lots of Vol fans. After all, they’re ranked No. 25 to start the season only twice in history, and one of those times results in by far the worst season in school history. This is why Jeremy Pruitt inherited such a mess to begin with.

Related Story. Ranking Vols 10 years after coach's first bowl game. light

However, it’s not all bad. Jones oversaw another UT team to start the season ranked No. 25 in the AP Poll. In 2015, they were ranked No. 25 to start the year in both the AP and Coaches Poll, the only time in history they started ranked No. 25 in the Coaches Poll, and they finished with a 9-4 record and ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll and No. 23 in the Coaches Poll.

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By any reasonable standard, that was the best season for the Vols since firing Phillip Fulmer. They lost all four games by one possession, something they didn’t do when they repeated their 9-4 campaign a year later. Those two seasons, 2015 and 2016, remain the only seasons since Fulmer was fired in which they had at least nine wins and finished in the top 25.

There’s one drawback to that, though. Tennessee football’s No. 25 ranking that year was when the Vols were entering Jones’ third season on the job. They were coming off a TaxSlayer Bowl win the year before, the first bowl appearance they had made under Jones, which was in his second season. Does that sound familiar?

Pruitt is entering his third year, coming off a Gator Bowl win, which is the same as the TaxSlayer Bowl, and that was his first bowl appearance with the Vols. Both Pruitt and Jones went 5-7 their first seasons on Rocky Top.

Simply put, this No. 25 ranking either brings back memories of the worst season in school history or serves as a reminder that, to this point, Pruitt and Jones are roughly on the same pace. Now, Pruitt did go 8-5 in 2019 while Jones only went 7-6 his second year, but for the most part, the two have had similar early trajectories.

Next. Vols 10 best seasons without top 25 finish. dark

None of this is something fans want to think about. This program does better when it finishes the season ranked No. 25 in one of the polls, not starting the season ranked in one of them. After all, Tennessee football’s only No. 25 finishes were in the Coaches Poll in 2000 and in the AP Poll in 2006. They won the SEC East the following years both times.

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