Tennessee Vols 2015 Football Season Preview by Position: Offensive Line
Nov 22, 2014; Knoxville, TN, USA; Tennessee Volunteers head coach Butch Jones before the game against the Missouri Tigers at Neyland Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
It is time to start previewing the Tennessee Vols 2015 football team at every position. Here is a look at the offensive line situation.
The biggest problem for the Tennessee Volunteers offense last year thanks to Derek Dooley has lots of expectations to be better this year.
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Throughout last year, the worst fears of what we perceive to be a spread offense hit the Vols in the form of an inexperienced offensive line, all of whom were newcomers. Tennessee gave up the most sacks and tackles for a loss in the SEC as a result.
Fortunately, this year, everybody is back for the Vols on the line, and that is welcome news for Butch Jones, new offensive coordinator Mike DeBord, and the rest of the coaching staff. But how much better are they? Everybody seemed to come together at the end of the season with Joshua Dobbs in the lineup at quarterback, but, as mentioned before, they did benefit from playing weaker teams for the most part.
So going into this year, the question remains, how good can the line be? Tennessee is clearly loaded with skill players, and Dobbs appears to be the answer at quarterback, but even late into the season, we forget that the line struggled.
Remember that the offensive line was the reason for the loss to the Missouri Tigers late in the year.
So even with everybody back and a recruiting class that included six more offensive linemen to provide depth, there is still a legitimate question of how good this unit can be.
Will it be as abysmal as it was the first half of the season or will it resemble the unit that looked good against weaker competition?
Let’s take a look at each position on the line and see what the depth chart will look like, knowing that these guys could switch around into other positions.
Next: Offensive Tackle Projected Depth Chart