Tennessee football 2019 preview by position: Vols special teams

Tennessee football returns its place-kicker, punter and top returner on special teams for 2020. Here is a preview of the Volunteers at that unit as a whole.

They may have lost their title of Wide Receiver U to the Clemson Tigers, but Tennessee football is developing a reputation as Punter U. They’ll be looking to continue that and add to it heading into this year.

One of the good things Butch Jones did when he was on Rocky Top was focus on all aspects of special teams. That’s why he produced multiple All-American returners and two elite punters. Jeremy Pruitt is looking to continue that entering his second year.

Pruitt has a great advantage with all three kicking positions returning their starters and Tennessee football bringing back its top returner. In fact, its only preseason All-SEC player was a returner, so the Vols could have a lot to be excited about.

But given the state of the program right now, as it rebuilds, special teams needs to be a major advantage, not just a positive. Where do the Vols stand on that front? That’s what we’re going to try to figure out in this post.

With Kevin Sherrer moving over to special teams coordinator, things may change. But we’re going to focus on the personnel and guys who could make an impact. Yes, we’re going to take special teams as a totality into account.

As a result, we’ll do what we do with all our posts on here and break the pages down by the starters, backups, biggest questions and final take. There are much fewer questions here than there are at other positions, but they still exist.

And hey, this is clearly a crucial part of Rocky Top. Robert Neyland’s sixth game maxim makes it clear that the kicking game is where the breaks are made. Can UT have an advantage with that maxim this year? Find out here with our preview of Tennessee football on special teams heading into the 2019 season.