Tennessee football: 5 questions heading into Vols 2019 spring practice

KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Tennessee mascot Davy Crockett carries the flag across the end zone during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - SEPTEMBER 08: Tennessee mascot Davy Crockett carries the flag across the end zone during a game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the East Tennessee State University Buccaneers at Neyland Stadium on September 8, 2018 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Tennesee won the game 59-3. (Photo by Donald Page/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next
Vols
Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images /

5. Will there be any position changes? 

Heading into the spring of 2018, Tennessee football was super thin in many areas and extremely inexperienced in others. They also had a new head coach in Jeremy Pruitt who simply saw different value in players.

The result was numerous position changes. This included Carlin Fils-Aime moving from running back to defensive back and Tyler Byrd moving from wide receiver to safety. However, Byrd went back to receiver before the spring ended, and Fils-Aime moved back to running back midseason.

So many of those changes were experimental. After all, Pruitt was taking over a new team and installing brand new systems on both sides of the ball. At the same time, he didn’t have much to go on from 2017 in terms of where players were successful since that entire season was an abject failure of historical proportions.

This year, though, it’s worth seeing if Pruitt will do the same thing. He obviously has a better grasp of where each player stands than he did going into last year, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t try more things out. Spring is, after all, when you try new things, and he’s got a bunch of new players coming in.

Could Jeremy Banks play linebacker and running back? Will Fils-Aime move back to defensive back? What about guys like Kingston Harris, who was recruited as a defensive lineman but spent more time on the offensive line? All these questions could be up in the air when spring ball begins, and this final one actually leads to our next question.