VolReport – Tennessee drops two spots in AP Top 25 after Austin Peay win

Following a sluggish performance against Austin Peay, Tennessee dropped two spots in The Associated Press Top 25 poll on Sunday.

The Vols fell to No. 11 in the poll after beating Austin Peay, 30-13 at Neyland Stadium on Saturday.

TALK ABOUT IT IN THE ROCKY TOP FORUM

ENJOY VOLREPORT WITH A PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION

Tennessee was one of five SEC teams ranked with Georgia holding the No. 1 spot after beating Ball State.

Alabama fell to No. 10 in the wake of its 34-24 home loss to Texas and LSU stayed out at No. 14. Ole Miss moved up to No. 17 after its 38-20 win over Tulane.

Texas A&M fell out of the top 25 after an upset loss at Miami.

Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State all received votes.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: What we learned about Vols’ SEC opponents in Week 2

The Vols struggled early vs. Austin Peay, trailing twice in the first half as the offense I struggled to establish a rhythm.

Tennessee scored its first touchdown just before halftime—a 5-yard Joe Milton III pass to Ramel Keyton to give the Vols the lead for good.

Running back Jaylen Wright rushed for 118 yards and kicker Charles Campbell was 3-of-3 in field goals.

Linebacker Aaron Beasley led Tennessee with nine tackles, including five tackles for loss.

“The job for us is to be the best football team on the field every Saturday,” head coach Josh Heupel said. “You walk off the field and see the scoreboard and either accomplish that goal or you didn’t. We have to come back in, learn, reset and grow from it, certainly, as we head into conference play we’re going to need to be better than we were tonight. Are we capable of doing those things? Absolutely. There are really small things. Some of our things at wide out— we’ve seen those guys operate, function and handle all that at a really high level.

“So urgency in how we come back tomorrow afternoon and on Monday I think is absolutely critical for us. I’ll say this, I didn’t feel like we were unfocused last week. We just have to take strides. Obviously the environment will be a good one next week and a good quality opponent.”

Tennessee opens SEC play at Florida (1-1) on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville.

The Vols opened as 8.5 point favorites. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.