Tennessee football: Ranking Vols position groups by spring practice play

10. Offensive Line

Position coach: Will Friend

Notable players: K’Rojhn Calbert, Wanya Morris

Throughout spring practice, Jeremy Pruitt touted the development of the Tennessee football offensive line. Based on how historically bad it was last year, there was obviously going to be nowhere to go but up.

Add in the fact that new offensive coordinator Jim Chaney specializes in coaching the offensive line, and the Vols appeared as if they would be in decent shape. However, there was really no way to make anything of the unit this spring.

That’s because the line was going up against a defensive line that lost everybody last year and will rely on junior college transfers, who won’t arrive until the summer, to fully reload. As a result, you had to take anything the line did with a grain of salt.

Then came the spring game, and the offensive line played horribly. It was like last season under Tyson Helton all over again. As a result, there’s more reason for concern than even before that happened, and it could be a big issue.

Considering how the unit played in the spring game and the major grain of salt that came with the things said about them throughout practice, we had no option but to label this as the worst unit for the Vols in the spring. You just can’t sell the unit when you see what they did in front of spectators.

Luckily for the Vols, three new lineman arrive in the summer, including five-star phenom Darnell Wright. And Wanya Morris and K’Rojhn Calbert were two positives in the spring. Add in Brandon Kennedy’s returning health and potentially Trey Smith coming back, and there’s plenty of good news. But based on spring alone, this was the worst group.