Tennessee football: 5 reasons for excitement surrounding Vols offseason

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) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
Vols
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images /

Despite going 5-7 in 2018, Tennessee football has a lot of positives in 2019. Here are five reasons for excitement surrounding the Volunteers offseason.

After losing to the Vanderbilt Commodores and an offensive coordinator search that took six weeks, December was a rough month for Tennessee football. It probably looked worse given the success of men’s basketball, even with a solid early signing period.

But with the hire of Jim Chaney, the return of Jauan Jennings and the homecoming of Tee Martin, things have been a lot more positive for the Vols the last two weeks. Jeremy Pruitt can celebrate again and prove he has things trending upward.

Before any of that happened, there were always some good things going on with the Tennessee football program. It may not have been entirely noticeable, but the same was true with the positive things surrounding what Jeremy Pruitt did his first year on Rocky Top if you just look on the surface.

The fact is the Vols’ offseason leaves a lot of excitement for 2019. There are numerous reasons to be happy about the future even after going 5-7, and they were noticeable before the coaching drama ever took place.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at all the reasons for Vols fans to feel positive about the football program this offseason. They all relate to the state of the program heading into the 2019 season and why, even this early out, there’s reason to believe that season will be significantly better.

That’s not to say that everything is perfect surrounding the program. We can safely say it’s not even close to that, and there are lots of things that need to be worked out. But it is to say that, even after losing six games by 25 points in 2018, there are plenty of reasons to be encouraged about the future.

So let’s go ahead and break all of those positive things down here. This read should open your eyes into what Jeremy Pruitt could truly be building on Rocky Top. These are our five reasons to be excited about the Tennessee football program during the offseason heading into 2019.