Tennessee football ranks outside CFP in ESPN preseason rankings

Tennessee football is preparing for its fourth-straight winning season under head coach Josh Heupel, who has had a winning season in all three years he's been on Rocky Top. The Vols will have to do it with less experience at quarterback this year, which is unfamiliar territory. 

Heupel and the Vols rely on redshirt freshman Nico Iamaleava as the quarterback to run Heupel's up-tempo system. Pair that with a brand new defensive secondary and other portal pieces to put together the defense, and you will have a lot of question marks around the team. 

Nico has his own question marks solely as a young quarterback. We saw a preview of what he is capable of in the Citrus Bowl as he led the Vols to a 35-point win over Iowa. While Iowa's defense is typically one of the better defenses in the country, it's still off from what Nico will face week to week in the SEC. 

Virtually every player from Tennessee's secondary either graduated or left through the transfer portal after last season so Heupel and the Vols had to piece together a group of guys that can compete against SEC receivers. They did that then some by bringing in Jakobe Thomas from MTSU, Jalen McMurray out of Temple, and Jermod McCoy from Oregon State.

With those pieces alone, Tennessee is hurting in returning production, let alone the other players that graduated or transferred out. That's a big part of Bill Connelly's SP+ rankings, which factor in returning production, recent recruiting, and recent history in its rankings to determine the best college football teams in the country. 

"SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency, Connelly explains. "It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and along those lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the season. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have gathered to date."

So, where do the Vols rank in Connelly's SP+ rankings? The Vols fall to No. 16 in the rankings, which is eighth among SEC teams alone. The Vols are behind Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma. 

Tennessee falls to 16 in these rankings for the reasons listed above. Returning production is a big focus, and the Vols simply don't rank high in that category. Despite the potential of this year's team with the playmakers brought in, Tennessee ranks 108th in returning production, so they are going to be penalized in pre-season rankings. 

It is worth noting Tennessee's first SEC opponent is ranked one spot ahead of them. The Oklahoma Sooners are ranked No. 15, so we will have a good idea of where both teams stand compared to these rankings early in the season when the two teams meet in Norman on September 21.

Here's the full top-25 rankings:

1. Georgia

2. Ohio State

3. Oregon

4. Texas

5. Alabama

6. Michigan

7. Penn State

8. Ole Miss

9. LSU

10. Notre Dame

11. Missouri

12. Florida State

13. Texas A&M

14. Clemson

15. Oklahoma

16. Tennessee

17. Kansas State

18. Utah

19. Miami

20. Oklahoma State

21. USC

22. Iowa

23. SMU

24. Arizona

25. Kentucky