Tennessee football: Top 10 potential dark-horse Vols for 2018 season

We’re sticking with defensive back, this time moving over to Carlin Fils-Aime. Last year, Fils-Aime appeared to be emerging as a solid playmaker at running back. He joined Ty Chandler, Tim Jordan and even Trey Coleman as guys who backed up John Kelly and made plays.

However, in the offseason, the coaches moved Fils-Aime over to defensive back. The converted running back stayed there throughout the spring, and he entered the fall in that spot as well. What does that tell me?

Well, it says that his experience at cornerback has been working out. Now, he may need some time to fully learn the position. But it’s clear that the coaches see value in Fils-Aime there, and as we already mentioned, the search for starters at the position is wide open. As a result, Fils-Aime is as much of a dark-horse Tennessee football player as anybody.

Again, the spot is wide open, and nobody has talked about Fils-Aime. So you have to consider him a dark-horse since, by nature of playing this position, he has a chance to start here yet is on nobody’s projected list of starters.

What works in his favor is the fact that he’s not the only person at cornerback making a transition. Despite coming from running back last year, every other cornerback from last year’s team is making a transition as well. After all, their roles are changing by moving into Jeremy Pruitt’s defensive scheme, which is a 3-4 base but requires being multiple. That gives Fils-Aime another advantage. So don’t count him out just yet.