Tennessee Vols Projected to Have Fourth Best Record in SEC Per ESPN

The Tennessee Volunteers have been projected to have the fourth best record in the SEC by ESPN.

Tennessee's stock this offseason hasn't exactly sky rocketed or likely increased at all. An offseason that has consisted of losing your starting quarterback to the portal and one of your star defensive players suffering a knee injury doesn't has provided some caution around the program. ESPN is ignoring all of the signs though.

ESPN's Neil Paine released the network's college football power index. It includes the team's FPI rating, their projected win total and their chances of making the playoffs and winning the national title.

For Tennessee, their FPI rating was 17.4 which ranks 10th in the country, they have a 38.5% chance of making the playoff, a 2.3% chance of winning the title and a projected win total of 8.7 wins. That might not seem like a lot of wins, but when you point out it's the fourth highest projection in the SEC, that changes some things.

The Volunteers win total projection ranked only behind Georgia, Texas and Alabama.

So while the majority of media pundits continue to question Tennessee heading into this season, the numbers are saying they will be just fine. And Josh Heupel's history with the Vols says they likely will be just fine.