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Tennessee football is back in the Top 25

By Colton Pickard

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers shouts to his players during the second quarter of the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Neyland Stadium on November 30, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE - NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Jeremy Pruitt of the Tennessee Volunteers shouts to his players during the second quarter of the game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Neyland Stadium on November 30, 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Silas Walker/Getty Images) /
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After being ranked in the top 20 of the S&P+ rankings, Tennessee football is back in the top 25 with ESPN’s FPI rankings.

This past weekend, Tennessee football was ranked 19th in the first S&P+ rankings, and this was the first time we have seen the Vols ranked in the top 25 ahead of the 2020 season.

Jeremy Pruitt is entering his third season as the Tennessee head football coach, and it looks like the national media is coming around on the Vols.

ESPN has released its first FPI rankings for the 2020 season, and the Tennessee Volunteers are back in the top 25 for another ranking.

For the Vols to find themselves at 19th in both the S&P+ rankings and now the FPI is pretty significant. These aren’t massively opinionated polls. Instead, they are more fact-based and performance-based.

The S&P+ breaks down analytics and statistics from 2019 and project how the team will perform in 2020. The Football Power Index (FPI) is very similar as it is also a predictive system that measures team strength and uses it to forecast game and season results.

This is great news for the Vols and any Tennessee fans. This points towards the Vols opening the season in the top 25. Although it will be awesome to see, it’s not about starting the season in the top 25, but it’s about finishing the season in the top 25.

The Vols currently sit at 19th in the FPI rankings, which is good enough for seventh in the SEC. I wouldn’t say that’s great, but it’s definitely an improvement from the past two seasons.

I’m not too surprised the Vols are in the top 25 in either of these rankings after the end of the 2019 season with winning seven of its last eight games. Pruitt used that momentum and carried it over into the offseason and had another great recruiting class.

With all of that combined, Tennessee should be in the top 25. Tennessee should be in the top half of the SEC.

Tennessee will be chasing Georgia and Florida again this season for the SEC East title, and I don’t know if Pruitt has his guys ready to take them down but the gap is closing. The Bulldogs and Gators are ranked 10th and 11th in the FPI rankings.

Next. Tennessee Volunteers: Tennessee is a baseball school. dark

Tennessee football is improving and has drastically improved since Pruitt took over the program that the previous administration left in shambles and it’s only going to get better from here.

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