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Tennessee football 2018 recap: Vols postseason awards

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 20: Defensive lineman Kyle Phillips #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts after an interception for a touchdown during the second half of the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on October 20, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Alabama won 58-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 20: Defensive lineman Kyle Phillips #5 of the Tennessee Volunteers reacts after an interception for a touchdown during the second half of the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Volunteers at Neyland Stadium on October 20, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Alabama won 58-21. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images
Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images /

Tennessee football’s 5-7 season still warrants individual recognition. Here are our 2018 postseason awards for the Volunteers.

It’s time to finish up with our recap of the 2018 Tennessee football season. Another 5-7 record left very little to celebrate. However, multiple players were worthy of a shoutout for the fight and effort they put in all season long.

So before we put the Vols’ season in the rearview and focus fully on the offseason, let’s go ahead and break down the major award winners. To be clear, this list is not the same as our top 10 players list. However, you’ll obviously see some crossover.

This list just looks at the Tennessee football player most worthy of a bit of recognition. Although there are only four awards to hand out, we actually have five players. Two had to share an award since we couldn’t really separate them. The awards are comeback player of the year, most improved player, newcomer of the year and most valuable player.

The other three, however, were pretty easy to name. This isn’t to say that other players who didn’t win any of these awards weren’t worthy of praise or recognition. As we’ve said all year, and as Jeremy Pruitt has said, there were 10 to 15 guys doing things the right way.

Unfortunately for the Vols, you need 22 guys doing the right thing and even more when you’re talking about necessary depth and things of that nature. That’s even more the case when you may have played the toughest schedule in the nation, dealt with numerous injuries in the spring that limited your system changes, and had so much turmoil that had already set the program back.

So they had no luxuries and could not get everybody to buy in. That’s a very bad combination for a football team and is how you end up with a losing season, even if it’s one that actually could have been significantly worse.

But let’s give the final positive note of the year here and look one more time at the players who stepped up. These are our Tennessee football postseason award winners following the Vols 5-7 season for 2018.

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