Tennessee football rises by default in Week 3 SEC Power Rankings

It’s already been a wild start to the season, and inconsistencies by certain SEC teams is making it harder and harder to separate them in our power rankings. Of course, that’ll change this weekend, when league play begins for most programs, including Tennessee football, and all of them will have faced at least one Power Five foe on the year this time next Monday.

However, until that time, we still have to nitpick and overrate certain factors when doing our SEC Power Rankings. Recency, strength of schedule and record are always factors, but margin of victory is just as big of a deal right now.

Five games this weekend feature two SEC teams each, and seven have their conference opener. Two of the three schools not playing SEC teams have already had their opener, so by the end of this week, only two schools, the Auburn Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels, will have not faced an SEC foe. As we wait on that, see where Tennessee football stands in our Week 3 SEC Power Rankings.

Last week: Lost to Stanford Cardinal 41-23

Well, we can at least say the Vanderbilt Commodores have an offense. After that horrendous performance in their opener against the ETSU Bucs, Clark Lea’s team came back from two touchdowns down to shock the Colorado State Rams last week, and now they have put up 23 points against David Shaw’s Stanford Cardinal.

Unfortunately for the ‘Dores, they are still the only team with a losing record in SEC play, and that’s enough for us to keep them at the bottom of our SEC Power Rankings. They remain one of two circled wins for Tennessee football still on the schedule.

Things are about to get brutal for the program, though, as now league play begins, and it starts this weekend against the Georgia Bulldogs. Luckily, they have one more realistic shot at a win next week against the UConn Huskies, but after that, they may not win another game the rest of the year. It could get that bad.