Tennessee football: Midseason awards for 2019 Vols

Through the first half of the 2019 season, Tennessee football has had plenty of individuals stand out. Here are our Volunteers midseason awards.

At 2-4 and 1-2 in the SEC, Tennessee football is about to open the second half of its season in the most brutal way…against the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on the road. But hey, they opened the season in the easiest way, at home against the Georgia State Panthers, and lose.

Could their be a reversal of fortunes? Well, that’s almost certainly not going to happen. But what’s clear is that Jeremy Pruitt’s second team appears to be on the right track after a horrendous start. A 20-10 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs last week hints at that right track.

Throughout the first half of the season, though, there have been standout players, even when things were down. Those players stood out a bit more as times got better for Tennessee football, and other players arose.

Before the second half of the season starts, though, we need to dish out our midseason awards. This takes into account how players have performed all year, not just in the games the Vols won or where they have shown improvement.

Some of them, though, were able to be the result of the key win last week because they were building on what they did all year. This post recognizes four awards: Comeback Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, Newcomer of the Year and Most Valuable Player.

If all of these guys are able to continue their play into the second half of the season while other players continue to emerge, Pruitt may have a program in decent shape. We don’t know for sure, and there’s a chance we won’t learn anything from the Alabama game on Saturday. But there are some winnable games left on the schedule, even if a bowl is a major uphill climb.

So which players should get recognition halfway through the year? Who did their best to withstand a very difficult start? Let’s break all of that down here. These are the midseason awards for the 2019 Tennessee football season.