Tennessee football: Top five true freshman of Vols 2019 season by impact

Lots of first-year players helped Tennessee football reach its 8-5 record in 2019. Here are the ones who had the greatest impact on the Volunteers.

Nine different freshman started a game for Tennessee football this year, including two different quarterbacks, and seven of them were true freshmen. Despite the heavy impact of senior leaders on this team, the Vols clearly have a bright future with the young guys Jeremy Pruitt was able to turn to throughout the season.

On top of those guys, other true freshmen came in off the bench to make lots of key plays throughout the season. At different points in the year, some of them came through in a huge way. Others slowly developed over time and became regular leaders by the end.

Without these players, Tennessee football doesn’t have its turnaround down the stretch of Pruitt’s second year on Rocky Top. Although some of them struggled severely early on, there’s no denying what they were able to do in the end.

But who were the true standout players? In this post, we’re going to break that down. This is a look at the most important true freshmen on the Vols from the 2019 season. These kids are the building blocks of the future under Pruitt.

The key word in this, though, is true freshman. Greg Emerson, Kurrott Garland and JT Shrout were all valuable to the Vols at different points this year, but they all redshirted in 2018. We are looking at freshmen who were in their first year on campus and thrived.

All of these players give UT fans reasons for excitement, even as they have to replace Jauan Jennings, Daniel Bituli, Nigel Warrior, Darrell Taylor and Marquez Callaway. What’s even more exciting for them is the fact that all the young guys began to came on strong at the end, particularly in the bowl game, and even players not on this list.

So which underclassmen were the biggest stars? What does this mean going forward? Let’s take a look at that here. These are the five Tennessee football true freshmen who had the biggest impact on the Vols during the 2019 season.