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Tennessee football: Did Akron win help Vols at all in Week 3 SEC Power Rankings?

By Caleb Calhoun

Teammates celebrate after Tennessee wide receiver Ramel Keyton (80) scores a touchdown during Tennessee's football game against Akron in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022.Kns Ut Akron Football
Teammates celebrate after Tennessee wide receiver Ramel Keyton (80) scores a touchdown during Tennessee's football game against Akron in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn., on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022.Kns Ut Akron Football /
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Three weeks into the season, Tennessee football is one of six undefeated teams left in the SEC. The Vols have blown out two MAC teams, and they beat a top 25 team on the road in the Pittsburgh Panthers. Oh, and they’ve covered the spread in all three games, so they are more than living up to expectations.

Where does that leave them in our SEC Power Rankings as they get set to open league play this week? As is common, our model focuses only on what teams and their opponents have done this year, and we have a recency bias, so projections won’t come into play here at all.

When you take all of those things into account, there’s a fair argument to put Tennessee football at No. 1. We’ll have a better idea with them and the rest of the league next Monday, when all but one team will have played at least one conference game by that point. Until then, here are our SEC Power Rankings following Week 3 of 2022.

What did beating the Akron Zips do for the Tennessee football Volunteers in this week’s Southeastern Conference Power Rankings?

Wide receivers Dominic Lovett (right) and Luther Burden (left) celebrated Lovett’s second touchdown of the game during Missouri’s 34-17 win over Abilene Christian on Sept. 17, 2022.
Wide receivers Dominic Lovett (right) and Luther Burden (left) celebrated Lovett’s second touchdown of the game during Missouri’s 34-17 win over Abilene Christian on Sept. 17, 2022. /

Tigers . 14. team. 822. . 2-1. Previous:

Defeated Abilene Christian Wildcats 34-17

Sorry, but this Missouri Tigers team is awful. Tennessee football’s coming-out party under Josh Heupel was beating Mizzou on the road in a blowout last year, but this is a program on the decline under Eli Drinkwitz. Perhaps they should have hired Josh Heupel from the UCF Knights in 2019 when they had an opening.

Heupel, after all, was their offensive coordinator. Anyway, Mizzou’s first win was against a Louisiana Tech Bulldogs team that may not be terrible but is 1-2 after a loss to the Clemson Tigers. Their second was an ugly affair against the Abilene Christian Wildcats.

In the middle, they lost to the Kansas State Wildcats 40-12, and K-State just lost to the Tulane Green Wave. As a result, this team’s in trouble. Lucky for them, they have a bit of a favorable schedule, so a bowl could still be in play, but they first have to win next week against another awful team in the SEC and the next one in our power rankings.

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