Tennessee football recruiting: 5 Vols signees for 2019 who could contribute early

You don’t take junior college players without expecting them to contribute immediately. Tennessee football took two in their 2019 recruiting class, and both were defensive tackles. Darel Middleton is already on this list because of the need at defensive tackle and his junior college status.

But while that gives Middleton a chance to start, it makes Savion Williams a favorite to start. Williams was a four-star junior college transfer and brings more experience, more size at 6’4″ 315 pounds, and more talent to the position.

In fact, while Emmit Gooden is likely to have one starting job at defensive tackle, Williams is already likely to be slotted in for the other spot. There is really nobody else that Jeremy Pruitt can turn to at this point, and Williams has proven enough to be able to line up and start at either tackle position for the Vols.

Kurrott Garland, Kingston Harris and Greg Emerson are on the list. But given the fact that they almost saw no action combined last year, it’s safe to say that the junior college guys will get the first looks this year. And Williams is the best of those junior college guys, which puts him higher on this list.

Williams probably won’t be able to do enough to offset the production of Alexis Johnson and Shy Tuttle from last year, even if he is starting with Gooden. But he can help out a lot and minimize the losses from that.