Tennessee football has many players who suffered through injuries in 2018. Here are four players whose return would really help the Volunteers for 2019.
Things were much better for Tennessee football in 2018 than 2017 in terms of injuries. In fact, it may have been one of the best seasons they ever could have asked for on the injury front, which is a major testament to strength coach Craig Fitzgerald.
However, they were already so thin that Jeremy Pruitt got quite a few bad breaks with where the injuries came. Three guys who would have probably been his three best offensive linemen were either banged up or out by the time the end of the season came.
One of them, Chance Hall, has already had to retire due to these health issues. However, that doesn’t change the fact that Tennessee football could see a major bump in production as players return to health.
With spring practice coming up, we’re not sure which of these players will be ready to go by then or not. But we do know that they’re return could play a role in Pruitt’s program taking a gigantic leap heading into the 2019 season.
In this post, we’re going to rank the key players who were injured last year based on how much they would help the Vols by returning this year. Now, it’s not a guarantee that all of these guys will return, but they are players who aren’t certain to be done with football either.
These players would, at the very least beef up the depth in key areas. And in some cases they would be immediate contributors to the point that you could reset your expectations for the program as a whole.
When the guys we’re about to name got hurt last year or had to leave due to health issues, the Vols had a noticeable drop-off. Some of them were able to come back by the end of the year, but none of them were fully healthy.
So which players could turn the program around even more with a season at full health? Who does Jeremy Pruitt need back. These are the four key Vols whose return to health could rejuvenate Tennessee football for 2019.