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Tennessee football 2018 preview by position: Vols tight ends

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 15: A view of the outside of Neyland Stadium before a game between the Florida Gators and Tennessee Volunteers on September 15, 2012 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) /
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Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images /

Tennessee football replaces both starting tight ends from last year. Here is a preview of the Volunteers at that position for the 2018 season.

In Jeremy Pruitt’s introductory press conference as Tennessee football’s head coach, one of the first things he said was that his system is about putting the best players on the field. His one example was tight end, noting that if you have three good tight ends it doesn’t make sense to put two of them on the bench.

Pruitt followed that up by securing an elite junior college player at tight end, converting two more players to the position in spring practice, and bringing a tight end with him to SEC Media Days. Taking all this into account, It’s clear, that the Vols are prioritizing the tight end position under Pruitt and Tyson Helton. They even brought in one for the 2019 recruiting class already.

However, doing this is critical. Tennessee football lost its two starting tight ends from the beginning of last year. Jakob Johnson ended up not playing much last year anyway, but Ethan Wolf is a huge loss. He is one of the most productive tight ends in school history as far as catching the ball and leaves a huge void.

As a result, replacing him is going to be incredibly tricky. The good news is Pruitt stacked the position enough that somebody is bound to step up. And there’s a very strong chance this position becomes a strength for the Vols again.

With a transition back to a pro-style, toughness will be a bigger requirement for the Vols tight ends. They still will likely need to be able to catch balls out of the backfield as well with Helton’s system. There are other nuances they’ll have to pick up, but that’s across the board.

As we preview the position, we’ll give our projected starters and backups, as usual, before going to our three questions and final take. So let’s get started looking at what may be Pruitt’s favorite offensive position. Here is our preview for Tennessee football tight ends heading into 2018.

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