Tennessee football 2019 preview by position: Vols tight ends

Tennessee football figures to make heavy use of its tight ends in 2019. Here is a preview of the Volunteers at that position for the year.

One of Jeremy Pruitt’s notable quotes in his introductory press conference was that he would not be afraid to use multiple tight ends on the field at a time. Tennessee football certainly did that, and they returned to a traditional style with many of them focusing on run-blocking.

Now, with Jim Chaney back as offensive coordinator, the Vols figure to use them even more. Mychal Rivera was an integral part of the last UT offense Chaney ran, in 2012, and Isaac Nauta was also a big part of the Georgia Bulldogs’ offense last year.

Simply put, Chaney and Pruitt will want to use the position a lot together. But how is Tennessee football looking there to be able to do that? After all, you need the personnel to make the tight end position what you want it to be.

With the transfer of Eli Wolf to UGA, Chaney and Pruitt would seem a bit more limited in what they could do. However, they have their returning leading receiver at tight end, and they added two new recruits at the position.

As a result, there are some positives. In our preview of the Vols at the position, we’re going to do the usual by projecting the starters and backups before looking at the biggest questions and giving a final take.

Yes, we are projecting multiple starters at tight end. This will be a look at the go-to receiving tight end and the primary blocking tight end. You always need both to be able to use the position effectively, and it works best if you have a guy like Jason Witten, who is elite at both.

Do the Vols have somebody like that this year? How many people can they run to satisfy Pruitt, Chaney and tight ends coach Brian Niedermeyer? Find out here with our preview of Tennessee football’s 2019 tight ends unit.