Where Tennessee football opponents are ranked in Phil Steele's preseason Top 40

Tennessee football is ranked No. 19 in Phil Steele’s preseason Top 40 and has six opponents on schedule that also made the ranking, including games against two top-five teams.

Steele’s ranking has Georgia at No. 1, ahead of Alabama, Texas A&M, UTSA, South Carolina and Kentucky, among Tennessee opponents. The other seven regular-season opponents on the Vols’ schedule — Virginia, Florida, UConn, Missouri, Vanderbilt and Austin Peay — were not ranked.

Here’s a closer look at where Steele has Tennessee opponents ranked in 2023:

No. 1 Georgia

Tennessee lost 27-13 at Georgia last November. Both teams entered the game undefeated at 8-0, but only the Bulldogs stayed perfect on their way to back-to-back national championships. Now Georgia makes the trip to Knoxville in November. Georgia is No. 3 in ESPN’s FPI, projected to go 11-1 and is No. 1 in the SP+, ranked No. 9 on offense and No. 3 on defense.

No. 4 Alabama

Jalin Hyatt caught six passes for 207 yards and five touchdowns in Tennessee’s thrilling 52-49 win over Alabama at Neyland Stadium last October. Now the Vols have to go to Tuscaloosa to try to make it two straight. Alabama is No. 2 in ESPN’s FPI, projected to win 11 games, and No. 4 in the SP+, ranked No. 5 on offense and No. 10 on defense. The road game at Alabama comes between the Texas A&M home game and the road game at Kentucky on Tennessee’s schedule.

No. 12 Texas A&M

Texas A&M is No. 19 in the FPI, projected to go 8-4, and the Aggies are No. 16 in the SP+, ranked No. 44 on offense and No. 2 on defense. But Jimbo Fisher’s team is coming off a 5-7 record in 2022, including a home loss to Appalachian State in September and a six-game losing streak that started on October 1 and stretched all the way to mid-November. The trip to Neyland Stadium in October is the end of a four-game run for A&M that includes Auburn at home, Arkansas (in Dallas) and has a home date with Alabama. 

No. 24 UTSA 

UTSA won 11 games last season and returns redshirt senior quarterback Frank Harris, who has accounted for 11,234 yards and 99 touchdowns over the last four seasons. Last season he had career highs in both passing (4,063 yards, 32 touchdowns) and rushing (602 yards, nine touchdowns). ESPN’s FPI has UTSA at No. 61 and the SP+ has them at No. 57, ranked No. 39 on offense and No. 85 on defense. The UTSA game comes at an interesting time on the schedule, stuck between the SEC opener at Florida and the home date with South Carolina.

No. 31 South Carolina

Tennessee gets South Carolina at Neyland Stadium in September after the disastrous loss in Columbia last November. South Carolina has the same quarterback (Spencer Rattler) and a new offensive coordinator (Dowell Loggains), but the metrics don’t think all that highly of the Gamecocks. They’re ranked No. 42 in the FPI and No. 33 in the SP+. South Carolina’s offense comes in at No. 20 while the defense is ranked 64th. Before the trip to Tennessee, the Gamecocks play North Carolina in Charlotte, host Furman, go to Georgia and have a home date with Mississippi State. 

No. 35 Kentucky

Tennessee’s 44-6 win over Kentucky in October was arguably the most complete win and best overall performance for the Vols during the first two years of the Josh Heupel era. Now Tennessee will have to go to Lexington and do it again, after Heupel’s team won 45-42 at Kroger Field in 2021. The metrics like this Kentucky team in 2023. ESPN’s FPI has the Wildcats at No. 28 and the SP+ has them at No. 22, ranked No. 59 on offense and No. 5 on defense. The FPI projects Kentucky to go 7-5.