While Tennessee Vols football coach Josh Heupel and his players probably don't care about preseason rankings that pop up in early May, the same can't be said for fans. There's hope that the Vols will be able to fight for a return to the College Football Playoff, but not a lot of people see that happening.
Leave it to 247Sports to get us down in the dumps a bit with the new campaign still about four months away. Late last week, reporter Brad Crawford came out with his new post-spring Top 25 and in a bit of stunning fashion, the Vols were nowhere to be seen. That's right, Tennessee didn't make the cut among the best 25 programs in the nation.
Tennessee was nowhere to be found in 247Sports' new preseason Top 25
Way to ruin our day, Brad - just kidding. In all seriousness, it shouldn't come as a major shocker that Tennessee isn't ranked here, as there's still plenty of worry following the news that former 5-star quarterback Nico Iamaleava has left town.
Iamaleava stunned us all when he entered the transfer portal. He has since signed with the UCLA Bruins, with Heupel and Tennessee bringing in Joey Aguilar to take over the offense. Nothing will be handed to him, however, as freshman signal-caller Jake Merklinger is ready to push for the job.
Assuming Aguilar does come out on top, he'd provide the offense with plenty of experience following two strong seasons leading the offense for App State. However, the drop off from Iamaleava is something we can't pretend won't impact this team.
The losses of Dylan Sampson, James Pearce Jr. and others is going to have a big effect on this squad as well. Yes, there are plenty of exciting pieces in Knoxville that should have Tennessee ready to post some impressive wins this fall.
With that said, there could be some growing pains for this new-look offense in Year 1 without Nico running the show. Entering the new season, Tennessee will hope to prove Crawford wrong and play at a high level. For now, though, Crawford and others think 2025 will end up resulting with a bit of a step back being recorded.