Four Vols earn preseason All-SEC honors

Four Tennessee football players earned preseason All-Southeastern Conference honors and the Vols have been picked to finish second in the conference’s eastern division behind Georgia this year.

Vanderbilt did not land any players on the preseason media days All-SEC teams and was picked to finish last in the seven-team eastern division.

But here’s an interesting twist regarding the Commodores: Vanderbilt received eight votes to finish first in the division. That’s far less than runaway favorite Georgia (265) and also less than Tennessee (14), but more first-place votes than the other teams in the division — South Carolina (three), Kentucky (one), Florida (zero) and Missouri (zero) — combined.

The Commodores were 5-7 overall last season, 2-5 in the division. They snapped a 26-game SEC losing streak when they defeated No. 24 Kentucky, and followed that victory with a 31-24 upset of Florida. Vanderbilt finished the season by losing 56-0 to Tennessee.

Tennessee’s Bru McCoy earned second-team All-SEC preseason honors, coming off a season in which the 6-3, 220-pound receiver caught 52 passes for 667 yards and four touchdowns. He started all 12 games he played in, topping the 100-yard mark three times and making five catches of 30 yards or more.

Vols quarterback Joe Milton was a third-team All-SEC choice, as was center Cooper Mays and offensive lineman Javontez Spraggins. In nine games last season, including two starts, Milton completed 53-of-82 passes for 971 yards, 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions. The Vols led the nation in scoring (46.1 points per game) and total offense (525.5 yards per game) last season.

Georgia was predicted to win the 2023 SEC Championship, receiving 181 votes. Alabama, predicted to win the western division, was second with 62 votes.