Tennessee football: Ranking Vols 10 position units for 2019
1. Special teams
The kicking game as a whole gets one coach, and this year that coach is Kevin Sherrer, who replaced being the defensive coordinator with being the special teams coordinator. He maintains his role as inside linebackers coach.
Luckily for Sherrer, there’s not much to worry about here for Tennessee football. The Vols return every starter and have proven production, making it by far the strongest unit on the team overall. In fact, it’s not even close.
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Let’s start with the most important position here, place kicking. Brent Cimaglia was 10-of-13 on field goals last year. He didn’t miss an extra point and was four-of-six from beyond 40. Hitting one beyond 50 in 2017 proves he has the leg, last year’s production proves he can be reliable on difficult kicks, and he remains almost automatic on easy kicks.
That’s what you want in a kicker. The one fear for Cimaglia is that he has no proven backup with Toby Wilson and Marshall Ware behind him. But place kickers rarely get injured, so that’s not as much of an issue as it would be elsewhere.
At punter, the Vols have Joe Doyle, who showed potential last year and earned Freshman All-American honors after averaging over 41 yards a kick, nailing 23 of 65 punts inside the 20, having 28 be fair-caught, and sending 12 beyond 50 yards, including a 71-yarder. Once a walk-on, his redshirt sophomore year should be a breakout campaign for him given that inaugural season.
If not, though, punter does have depth. Paxton Brooks was a highly-touted punter in the Vols’ 2018 class, and he handles kickoff duties. He was in the top 30 in the nation in percentage of kickoffs sent for touchbacks, so he has the leg power.
On top of that, despite losing Elijah Medford, Riley Lovingood is back as long-snapper. Remember, he was once SEC co-special teams player of the week after catching a punt to pin it inside the five-yard line against the Georgia Bulldogs in 2016. That set up a Derek Barnett strip sack for a touchdown. He also has some depth with Jake Yelich.
The return game is elite too. Marquez Callaway, who has two career punt return touchdowns, is the Vols’ only 2019 preseason All-SEC player, and he earned it as a returner with 14 punt returns for 166 yards and a touchdown last year.
On kickoff returns, Ty Chandler had a touchdown in 2017. He, Bryce Thompson, Nigel Warrior and Shawn Shamburger have all proven themselves in that regard, and the addition of four-star running back Eric Gray gives Jeremy Pruitt another option here.
Next. Projecting the Vols' 2019 2-deep depth chart. dark
Simply put, Tennessee football returns everybody on special teams, which was its strongest unit last year outside of defensive line. The Vols have proven depth there, and none of the spots really seem to be a weakness. As a result, it’s their strongest unit. And as a program coming off a 5-7 record needing to develop, special teams could be a major help.