Tennessee football: Vols top five sophomores for 2019

Nigel Warrior is one clear starter at safety. But Tennessee football lost Micah Abernathy and Todd Kelly Jr. from the other spot, so they have an opening. Jeremy Pruitt showed lots of love for Trevon Flowers early on, though, and he already is getting love from new defensive coordinator and secondary coach Derrick Ansley as well.

So the job is Flowers’s to lose. And his talents give him a ton of potential. He was only a three-star commitment in the Vols’ 2018 class, but that was patly because he played baseball in the spring instead of going to those camps to showcase his skills. The requirements of covering ground that come with baseball fielding, though, transition to safety.

As a result, despite missing a big chunk of last year due to injury, Flowers still started multiple games at safety and saw significant action. Fully healthy, he should be dominant this year assuming he holds onto the job.

Theo Jackson, Maleik Gray and now Jaylen McCullough could all push Flower for that spot. But entering his sophomore year, Flowers’s potential is through the roof. And we believe in him enough to really prop him up on this list. He’s simply too athletic, too intelligent, and has too great of instincts to ignore.