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Butch Jones voted Tennessee seventh in his final USA Today Coaches Poll ballot

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•01/11/23•

GrantRamey

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Tennessee came in at No. 6 in the final USA Today Coaches Poll of the college football season on Tuesday, ranked behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 TCU, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Ohio State and No. 5 Alabama.

On Wednesday the final ballots from coaches were released by USA Today. Most ballots had the Vols at either No. 5 or No. 6, with some votes for No. 4 and some as low as No. 7 or No. 8.

Former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones, who is 5-19 in his first two seasons as head coach at Arkansas State, voted the Vols seventh. Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano, who Tennessee nearly hired in 2017, also voted the Vols seventh.

North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren, who also was a candidate for the Tennessee job in 2017, voted the Vols eighth. Alabama coach Nick Saban had Tennessee at No. 6 on his ballot, four spots behind his Crimson Tide, which he voted at No. 2 behind Georgia.

It was the same top five in the the final Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, where the Vols also came in at No. 6, the highest final ranking for the team since 2001, the last 11-win season, when Tennessee finished fourth.

Tennessee (11-2) beat Clemson 31-14 in the Capital One Orange Bowl on December 30 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, giving the Vols 11 wins for the first time since 2001. The Tigers dropped to No. 13 in the final AP Top 25.

Vols finish with highest ranking in final AP Top 25 since 2001

Tennessee during the regular season won 10 games for the first time since 2003. The Vols beat Alabama 52-49 on October 15, a week after going to LSU and winning 40-13 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. LSU was ranked in the final poll after going 10-4 on the season. 

Pitt finished 9-4 and ranked No. 22. Tennessee went to Acrisure Stadium in September and beat the Panthers in overtime, the second of eight straight wins to start the season. 

Hendon Hooker passed for 3,135 yards and 27 touchdowns, against just two interceptions, as a Heisman Trophy candidate before going down with a season-ending torn ACL in Tennessee’s loss at South Carolina in November.

His favorite target this season, Jalin Hyatt, became Tennessee’s first Biletnikoff Award winner after catching 67 passes for 1,267 yards and 15 touchdowns, a single-season program record. 

Offensive coordinator Alex Golesh was a Broyles Award finalist, the trophy given annually to the best assistant coach in college football. He left to become the new head coach at South Florida in early December. Josh Heupel announced last week that quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle had been promoted to offensive coordinator to replace Golesh.

Tennessee players helped ‘revive a prominent program’ in 2022

In the Orange Bowl, playing without Hooker, Hyatt, Cedric Tillman and Jeremy Banks, Tennessee handled Clemson thanks to 251 yards passing and three touchdowns from Joe Milton, who connected with Bru McCoy, Ramel Keyton and freshman Squirrel White for touchdowns. The Vols ran 38 times as a team for 159 yards and a touchdown.

“All season long we’ve talked about learning how to compete and finish at the end,” Heupel said after the win last month. “… The message was really consistent with that, as well. It was about finishing our season, finishing this legacy, for the guys that have been here the last two years or whenever they came in, I’m not sure a group has done more in a shorter amount of time to help revive a prominent program the way this group has.

“So proud of the players and the staff, the connection that we have, being accountable to one another, loving to compete and doing it together every single day.”

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