Tennessee football returns a lot of talent from 2018, but many spots are still open. Here are the safest starters for the Volunteers in 2019.
When 2018 began, Jeremy Pruitt pretty much had every starting spot wide open for Tennessee football. And there were quite a few surprising winners of lead roles. Heading into 2019, the Vols know a good bit more.
A 5-7 season followed by a change in coordinators on both side of the ball and a very good recruiting class would seem to open up tons of starting roles. And there are in specific spots. Nobody is 100 percent safe.
However, plenty of players proved enough for Tennessee football last year to show that they have earned a safe starting spot. A few more of them have, at the very least, earned likely roles. We have enough evidence of how much better some guys are than anybody else on the roster at certain positions.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at those players who are the most protected from losing their starting jobs. These are players who are favorites to start this year based on their production last year, what was said about them in the spring and the depth at that position.
Depth at the position is obviously going to be a big factor. That’s why this is not a ranking of the most important players or the biggest impact players. It’s just a look at those who are the most certain to have a starting role.
Of course, as we said, nothing is 100 percent guaranteed. But these spots are as close to guaranteed as they can be, and a couple of them may actually be there. Lots of that is because there are still positions with too many questions and issues, leaving it wide open.
So who has the least to prove heading into fall camp? Which players don’t have to worry about any real competition? Let’s break that down here. These are the safest starting spots on Tennessee football’s roster for 2019.