Tennessee football: Ranking Vols 10 position units for 2019
Most of the position units for Tennessee football figure to be better in 2019. Here is how the Volunteers’ units rank with fall camp underway.
All but one position unit for Tennessee football this year returns the majority of its starters, and in most cases, everybody is back. That could be good or bad news for Jeremy Pruitt considering it also means the Vols return a lot of players who could only go 5-7 in 2018.
However, the hope on Rocky Top is that improved health, more experience in the pro-style and 3-4, and the additions of Derrick Ansley and Jim Chaney will mean much greater success for 2019. After all, there’s no denying that Pruitt inherited a mess last year.
If Tennessee football does have a turnaround, though, which position units will be responsible for it? And who will be responsible for them having another disappointing season, if that is indeed the case for 2019?
That’s going to be the focus of this post. We’re going to rank all the units on the Vols for 2019 with the knowledge that they could change through development in fall camp. However, up to this point, we have enough to go on.
Our criteria include the number of returning starters, the proven production of those starters, the level of proven depth, Pruitt’s recruiting at that particular position and what players showed in the spring. All of this could be used for these rankings.
Every unit that has a specific position coach is going to get a page. It’s worth noting that the Vols have 10 units with a coach, which gives you the number of pages that will be in this post. The quality of the coaches could be another factor in our rankings, and while there are three new assistants, five of the 10 units have new coaches.
So with this mix of attrition, addition and returning talent, let’s go ahead and start taking a look at the strengths and weaknesses on the Vols heading into Pruitt’s second season. This is our ranking of the 10 Tennessee football position units with coaches for 2019.