Defeated Missouri Tigers 66-24
For anybody worried about how Tennessee football would respond after losing to Georgia in such a humiliating way, well, worry no more. Hendon Hooker put those questions to rest by relaunching his Heisman Trophy campaign and going off for over 400 total yards and four total touchdowns on Senior Day for the Vols.
In the process, UT became the first team in the SEC to beat Mizzou by more than one score. They beat them by six scores. Mizzou was supposed to be way better on defense than they were last year, and they had a top 15 defense and top five defensive line based on all the advanced metrics coming into the game.
Well, UT still overperformed after last year’s breakout game against them, setting program highs for points and yards in a game under Josh Heupel. Taking this into account and the fact that they beat the No. 3 and No. 4 teams on here, the Vols are obviously No. 2 in these power rankings.
Rocky Top’s only loss is to the top team on this list, which we’ll get to. No SEC East is in play for them anymore, but the College Football Playoff is still an attainable goal, and they are more likely than not to reach that. However, a trip to South Carolina could be tricky, and now so could a trip to Vanderbilt, so Tennessee football still needs to be careful.