Many of the biggest weapons for Tennessee football will be juniors and redshirt juniors in 2019. Here are the five best ones for the Volunteers.
Despite returning lots of talent, Tennessee football has many upperclassmen who have the potential to be great but haven’t shown it yet. They also have enough proven upperclassmen to create a decent level of excitement in 2019.
None of this is truer than in the Vols junior class. Their mix of third and fourth-year juniors includes numerous key players who may be the most important on the team, but it also includes lots of guys looking to burst onto the scene but who haven’t proven anything yet.
Then there is the fact that the status of two guys who would start tomorrow for Tennessee football is still up in the air, a week and a half ahead of the start of the season. One is waiting on an eligibility waiver from the NCAA, and the other is in limbo due to health reasons and hoping to be cleared to play by doctors soon.
As we get set to look at the best and most important juniors on the Vols this year, all of these things are going to be taken into account. That combined with the health and talent will be relevant to this ranking.
This list isn’t like our look at true freshmen. We’re not evaluating talent based on their chances of playing a lot. Our criteria for this one is solely about the best players we believe to be a part of the junior class as a whole.
The most exciting part about this group is some of them could be back next year, as Jeremy Pruitt continues to build his program. Sure, if they are great, they could leave early, but it’s not likely that all of them do that.
Juniors are always exciting because of that. They are usually proven talents but also have another year left to give people excitement for the future. So who are the players fitting that mold on the Vols this year? Let’s break them down now. These are the top five Tennessee football juniors for the 2019 season.