Tennessee football: Vols top 5 returning underclassmen for 2019 spring practice

Tennessee football will rely on young talent in Jeremy Pruitt’s second year. Here are the five key returning Volunteers underclassmen for spring practice.

Outside of the defensive line, Tennessee football lost very few players from last year. However, a series of transfers and indefinite illnesses and a number of rising seniors leave Jeremy Pruitt’s second team with a group of very few returning underclassmen.

Well, let’s put it this way. He has very few returning underclassmen who are proven performers. Many players have shown flashes, but there’s a reason he’s going to be looking to his top 12 2019 recruiting class early for help.

Tennessee football, however, is not without some returning talent among the underclassmen. They have lots of guys who have shown flashes and clear potential among many others. Pruitt will want to bring more out of all those guys this spring.

In this post, we’re going to rank the five best Vols returning underclassmen heading into spring practice. These are guys who proved enough last year, won’t be seniors, and will still be core players for Pruitt to keep building his team around.

Just as a heads up, we’re leaving Trey Smith off the list. He’s the most proven player on the team, but we can’t list him on here when there’s no telling when or if he’s going to be able to return. However, there are quite a few other talented guys coming back.

These players provide a positive outlook this year and for the future of the program under Pruitt. They are the ones who are cause for the most excitement. Now, it is true that more need to be added to the list. But this is still a solid group of players.

So let’s go ahead and look at who they are. Remember, these are proven guys we have no reservations about for this year who are also not going to be seniors. These are the top five Tennessee football underclassmen heading into the Vols’ 2019 spring practice.