Tennessee football: Vols top five redshirt freshmen for 2019
Tennessee football has numerous players who sat out in 2018. Here are the Volunteers’ five redshirt freshmen with the most potential for 2019.
It was pretty clear with the offensive linemen brought in that Jeremy Pruitt was looking for immediate help in the 2019 Tennessee football recruiting class. However, what about players from his first recruiting class?
In 2018, Pruitt signed quite a few Vols and reshuffled the entire group after what he inherited from Butch Jones. There were some holdovers, though, and while some of the members of that class made major impacts as freshmen, others flew a bit under the radar.
As with every class, there were quite a few freshmen to take a redshirt for Tennessee football last year. Some did it because they weren’t yet needed at their position, and others did it because they needed more time to develop.
Whatever the reason, their redshirts are lifted just as the Vols need some new talent at certain positions. Despite so many returning starters, they are looking for replacements in some areas, and they need improvement in others.
That means that the redshirt freshmen could play a key role in becoming impact players. Some have a chance at starting. But who are those guys? What is their potential? We’re going to focus on them with this post.
Our focus on this is specifically on the players we project to be the best redshirt freshmen on the roster. Now, yes, the depth chart will have an impact only because a loaded position won’t leave room for a redshirt freshman to make an impact.
There are currently 15 redshirt freshmen on the roster, and eight of them were offered scholarships as members of the 2018 recruiting class. A ninth member of that class and 16th redshirt freshman, Kurrott Garland, is currently in the transfer portal, so we’re leaving him off this list since we don’t know where he’ll end up.
But there are plenty of other players worth looking at. Let’s break down who they are now and analyze the impact they could have. These are the top five Tennessee football redshirt freshmen with potential heading into the Vols’ 2019 season.