All offseason, something hasn’t been adding up with Tennessee Football. Josh Heupel said all week at SEC Media Dats that this is upcoming team is the deepest and most talented he’s had on Rocky Top. National media expects the Vols’ offense to return to where they were in 2022 with Nico Iamaleava replacing Joe Milton III.
Somehow, though, the on-field results predicted by many suggest production more similar to 2023. We wrote about that paradox already here. Well, the preseason media picks and All-SEC teams revealed at the end of SEC Media Days have only managed to add to that paradox.
Cooper Mays and James Pearce Jr. were the only Tennessee Football preseason All-SEC players. Both were first team, to be fair. Meanwhile, the Vols were picked to finish seventh in the league, behind the Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns, Alabama Crimson Tide, Ole Miss Rebels, LSU Tigers and Missouri Tigers in that order.
Despite being picked to finish seventh, the Vols’ number of All-SEC players was tied with the Texas A&M Aggies for 11th in the league, behind Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Ole Miss, LSU, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Auburn Tigers, the Kentucky Wildcats, the Florida Gators and the South Carolina Gamecocks in that order. How does that work?
Now, to be fair, UT had more first team selections than A&M, Florida and South Carolina, so only eight teams were definitively better-represented than them on preseason All-SEC. That’s holding it to the strictest standard, though, and they somehow are ninth on that metric while picked seventh.
It doesn’t make sense. Going forward, mid-tier teams can expect to have fewer players make All-SEC because the league now has 16 teams, and these paradoxes will be more common. Heck Mizzou is picked sixth in the league, ahead of UT, and has just one All-SEC player.
In general, though, Tennessee Football has been an offseason of paradoxes. What just happened on the heels of media days adds to that, and it may make Heupel’s fourth team by far his most unpredictable. That could be a good or bad thing once the season kicks off.
